Innocence was Gone Yesterday
by sTaRfIrExrObIn
Summary: She's finally getting the chance to get away from home. He's finally getting away from the pressure. When Tameran's princess and Gotham's heir meet at boarding school, it only spells one thing: a deadly romance. RichardxKori BeastboyxRaven
1. Kori Anders

**Kori Anders**

The plane ride was almost over. And thank God, too.

I was excited, almost too giddy for my own good. I couldn't believe that I was going to a boarding school. A _boarding school_. The words seemed almost too good to be true. I was finally getting away from that horrible prison. I was finally getting away form everything: the cameras, the manners, the dresses that I couldn't breathe in, and the pressure.

I was finally getting away from home.

It wasn't really home. Home was that place where you could feel like you actually lived in it. A bedroom was where you could throw everything aside and jump on your bed. Family was that group of people who would hug and kiss you if you came back after not seeing them for three months.

My whole life was a lie. My home was just a museum with gold. My bedroom was basically a room with a bed and nice things in it. And then there was my family. The truth was, I don't think I've ever had a family.

We owned Tameran, which happened to be one of the most superior countries today. Our palace was basically covered in gold from top to bottom. And to top it all, I was the heir to the throne. I would someday rule a country and make laws. I was the one that was pressured, the one that everybody took pictures of. I always knew I was different, like I was never destined to sit in a throne. I was into playing with knives and guns ever since I was five and hitting anybody who was stupid enough to get in the way of whatever I wanted. With artillery and courage as my skills, I knew I could do anything I put my mind to.

My father had died when I was at an early age. After that, people looked up to my mother for order and soon began to question her strength.

It was a hard thing, seeing her being forced to marry again, especially to someone she didn't love. My new stepfather was a duke. He stepped all over my mother, abusing her and treating her poorly. I was pretty sure that he still did now. Almost every night I stayed up hearing them yell and scream at each other until it ended with the sound of a slap.

My sister Koma was one of the better people in my life. We were the only friends we had. I could remember years ago when I used to sneak across the hall into her bedroom to talk with her. And then one night she burst into my bedroom in tears…

…..

"_Kori, I can't take this anymore," she said, weeping. _

_Instantly I ran to her side and guided her to a chair. I never saw her cry until now. I had always been the sensitive one; she was the strong one, the one that never showed any sadness. _

_Now she tears were streaming down her cheeks fast. Her sleek, black hair was in a tangled mess, and her amethyst eyes were blotchy and red. The left side of her face was almost scarlet. _

"_X'hal. Koma, what happened?" My voice was full of worry._

_Her lower lip trembled and for a minute she could speak. "Caklan…he..." Her voice trailed off as she spat out our stepfather's name. "…He hit me," she whispered hoarsely._

_I could feel angry tears welling up in my own eyes. "How…how could he? I going to go to him right now and-"_

_I rose out of my seat but she grabbed my wrist and roughly sat me down again. Before I looked at her face I promised myself I wouldn't cry. Not again._

"_But Koma," I protested, my voice coming out as hoarse as hers, "You can't let him get away with this. We have to do something."_

"_I know." She looked at me with a serious face. Something in her eyes made me afraid of what she was going to say. What if she ended up doing something stupid? "That's why I'm leaving, tonight." _

_She was doing something stupid. The least she could do was do something stupid with me. That way we'd have each other to lean on._

"_You're taking me with you, right?" I said hopefully. I walked over to my closet and began to take out every piece of clothing that was in front of me._

_She was silent._

"_Right?" I asked again. I turned around to face her. She was looking down at the floor. _

_This couldn't be good._

_After a few minutes, she looked back at me with sober eyes. "I can't."_

"_What?" I almost shrieked. My voice came out like a squeak and I looked at her with wide eyes. _

"_You know what'll happen. Caklan will come for us. If you stay, the throne will be passed on to you. Kori, you can't let him keep it."_

_Now I was the one crying. "But what about me?" I cried as my voice wavered. _

"_I'll come back for you," she said. She pulled me into a hug and I dug my face into her neck. My tears were getting her good shirt wet. And she hated that when that happened. _

"_I'll come back, I promise," she said again._

…..

She was gone by the next morning. And she was right. Caklan did not look for her. But I was sure he would have if I had gone with her.

I shuddered at the old memory. It made me sick.

"Ms. Anders, the plane will be landing within a few minutes."

My breath began to run short when the clouds started to clear. I saw a school almost as big as our palace. It was like a Victorian castle. I put my hand to my mouth in awe.

There was a smile on my face.

It was one that I hadn't seen in a long time.

**

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**-sTaRfIrExrObIn**


	2. Richard Grayson

**Richard Grayson**

_For almost a century, Victoria Preparatory High School has remained one of the world's best schools. Jump City's beautiful valleys surround us, giving us the isolated beauty of nature and still being nearby the bustling city as well. Our boarding school has given the most deserving youth a chance to experience the best education and a pre-college experience. _

_Victoria Preparatory is divided into four different divisions. The North wing, the largest of them all, is where the student's classes are held. It is also where the administration office is located. The South wing is the recreation center, open to students every day of the week. This is connected to both the East and West Ends of the school, where students' dormitories are sited. The East wing, otherwise known as the Galveston wing, is where boys from grades 9 to 12 are sorted into different dormitories. This concept goes the same for the girls in the West wing, which is called the Merainian wing. For our faculty, the…_

I couldn't read anymore.

My finger pressed on the button to my side until the window was completely rolled down. And then I took the brochure and crumpled it and threw it out the window.

"Stupid brochure," I muttered darkly under my breath. I had been dreading this day for weeks.

"I know kids who would die to get a taste of Victoria Prep, so quit it," came a deep, stern voice to my right.

I kept my jaw set straight and pursed my lips, stopping myself from saying what I really thought. I looked at the man who was sitting across from me.

Bruce Wayne, the one and only. He was the great entrepreneur, and one of the richest men in the world. He had been my father since I was seven. He had raised me to inherit everything he owned when he was gone.

And at the moment I hated him.

He was sending me to a boarding school. You know, that place where parents put their kids because they don't want to deal with them? That was where Bruce was leaving me now. There were three different sides to it.

First there was good part about leaving: I was getting away from the stupid company Bruce was trying to introduce me to. I understood well that I was going to be the one taking his place as owner and president of Wayne Enterprises. And I understood what a big responsibility it was and that it was going to take time to train me. But what I didn't understand was why he was pressuring me. I was only sixteen. I was only a junior in high school. What was the rush? I still didn't get it.

Then there was the in between side: I needed Babs already, but at the same time I was glad to get away from her- she was too clingy. That was the bad side to it. I didn't exactly love her. I wasn't even sure I liked her. We just spent stayed together because we so damn bored of our lives. It was fun making out in her room once in a while and sneaking around each other's houses for reckless teen behavior, but it was nothing more than a fling- a really _long_ fling, one that was long enough to last for two years.

There was something I liked about her. I didn't know if it was her red hair, her shy attitude, or the way she was almost too willing to do anything for me, which got annoying after a while. But I knew I didn't love her. Sure, she was pretty, but I couldn't see any unique beauty in her, unlike all of the other guys in Gotham who hated me for dating her. She never made my heart stop or made it beat faster. To me she was just…Babs, the redhead who I used to my advantage.

And lastly, the worst part: Bruce demanded that Robin be in hiding for the next nine months. I was used to getting in my suit every night and prowling around Gotham in my other alias. Being Gotham's hero was the only thing that was exciting about my life. Without it, I was sure I would go crazy.

I looked at the gates of the school. They had a Victorian design, and it looked like we were entering a manor or something. Alfred gave our name to the speaker on the wall and instantly the gates opened to reveal…a castle. It had to be the biggest thing I had ever seen.

The road to the school itself was longer than it looked. The Cadillac slowed down to a stop as it pulled over to the curb.

"So I'll see you in nine months, to be exact," Bruce said.

I turned to face him, making sure all of my anger was showing. "I can't believe you're sending me to a _prep_ school," I said with distaste. "If you think it's going to shape me up, then I'll make sure I come back home a crackhead or something."

"If that's a promise, then I'll send you back for your senior year." He looked at me with eyes that were challenging me. I tried to glare at him back the same way. Dry (very dry and red) eyes and a minute later, I finally blinked. And it hurt. Badly. I always sucked at staring contests.

Without another word, I got out of the car and got my things from Alfred.

"Farewell, Mr. Grayson. I am looking forward to seeing you in the summer." He gave me a look that wished me luck and I smiled a little bit in one corner of my mouth back. He was the only person I knew right now who deserved it.

I watched as Alfred hopped into the car and drove down the road until the gates opened. Then they were gone. I turned to the doors of the school to face what lay ahead.

------------------------------

The grounds were full of students whining either about their schedules or about finding their dorms. I was whining mentally to myself about the massive crowd that was beginning to form behind me as I searched for the Galveston Wing.

It had to be around somewhere. Because when I found it I was going to shut all the people behind me out.

When I finally reached it an hour later, I walked fast up the stairs and through the corridors until I found the A Division. I looked back. There was not a single person behind me now. I slowed my pace.

"A53, A53," I mumbled repeatedly to myself until I began to hear loud music. I stared back down at the map I was holding along with my schedule. It was coming from the corner where my dorm was located.

I kept on following it until the music was booming and my eardrums felt like they were about to burst. I began to see guys throwing soda cans around and wrestling on the wooden floors. I thought they were going to make the wooden floors collapse, and I snickered to myself. This school was almost as old as Bruce's mom.

I gazed around in amazement. Maybe this wouldn't so boring after all. Maybe it would be like…

My thoughts scattered when I bumped into a tall, African-American guy who looked my age. He also looked angry.

"I'm sorry, man. I wasn't watching where I was going," I apologized.

I watched his frown slowly turn upside down until he looked as happy as Bozo the Clown. I felt worried when his smile didn't stop getting bigger.

"You must be Grayson," he said as he realized who I was. He reached his fist out to knock knuckles with me. "You looking for A53?"

I raised my eyebrows. "Yeah. How did you know?"

He ran away all of a sudden. At first I thought this was some kind of lame joke, but when he came back with some guy with green hair, I raised my eyes even more. I couldn't tell if it was the fact that the guy was still smiling or the green hair that was confusing me.

"I'm Victor Stone, and this is Gar Logan," he said. "We're you're new roommates."

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**♥ A//N: I hoped you like my new story! Every chapter is going to have a different character's point of view. All reviews are loved and appreciated. Peace!**

** Also, does anybody know what color Babs' eyes are?**

** -_sTaRfIrExrObIn_**


	3. Raven Roth

I hated school. I hated pink. I hated eating anything other than my green veggies and my herbal tea. I hated when people got up in my space.

My new roommate saw things differently.

When she came into the room, she couldn't stop talking about the school. Her suitcases, her shoes, and her stuffed elephant were pink. One of her suitcases was bursting with chocolate covered pretzels and gummy worms and soda. And the worst thing? Her stupid bodyguard won't lay off her _or_ me.

I walked past her bedroom, where she was ordering her movers around to put her bed and her bookshelf. She already had her clothes hung in the closet and her shoes in clear, little boxes.

I had moved in a couple days ago when I arrived. I just put up my posters, my mirrors, and shoved hangers into my clothes and put them in my closet. It was nothing special. Sure, I had movers. One mover, to be exact. And he didn't spend two days arranging furniture in my room, unlike hers, who called her "Your Highness" every two minutes. After a while I think even _she_ was beginning to get annoyed.

When everything finally calmed down, I walked into her room. It wasn't too bad…actually, scratch that- I felt like the pink and green were killing me. I sat on her bed.

"So what did you say your name was again?" I asked dully.

"Kori Anders. I'm from Tameran. I'm kind of like the princess there, if you know what I mean." Her English was pretty good for a foreigner.

"Oh. I'm Raven Roth." After a while I added, "Are you sure you're comfortable being my roommate? I mean, usually people ask for a new dorm when they see me."

It was true. Raven Roth the Goth. That was what everyone called me. My wardrobe only had black, navy blue, and violet in it. My room had mirrors and vintage posters of rock bands. I had been going here since my freshman year and I usually ended up sharing a dorm with Bee, who had no problem with anything unless you stole her jar of honey or her graham crackers.

"Really? You seem okay with me." She smiled and her green eyes twinkled.

She acknowledged me. I tried to hide my surprise. Normally people were scared of me. Especially people like her. People like the royals. It didn't strike me as surprising, or anybody else at the school. A lot of famous people around the world sent their kids to school here.

It was silent. I didn't know what to say. Kori, on the other hand, looked like she was going to burst.

"Honestly? I'm kind of…envy you."

I looked at her with question marks on my face. "Wha…why?"

She was jealous of me? _I_ was jealous of _her_. She was pretty. She had pretty red hair. I was born with a heinous shade of dark black (almost violet looking) hair. Her eyes were a light green. Mine were violet, which were very uncommon.

"Because you're so…different. There are a ton of girls with red hair. There are a ton of girls with green eyes. But you have violet hair and pale skin. I think it's rather pretty." She smiled shyly at me, and I couldn't help but smile back too.

Hmm.

Maybe pink and green weren't so bad.

----------------------------

_Write a biography about yourself and your family. _

I stared warily at the subject of the assignment. What could I possibly write? My family life was confusing, weird, and centered smack in the middle of hell.

As a family, we moved around a lot. Around Europe, that was. My parents were magicians, famous ones to be exact. They entertained almost all of the royal families at least twice.

Their acts were amazing. At first, I could never figure out any of the tricks they performed. At times, my mother would help my father disappear behind a curtain, and two minutes later he would literally come right out from one of the royal guards, as if my father had possessed the man. And then sometimes they were able to move things by just staring at the object.

There was this one particular one that would make me frustrated every time they performed it. It was my mother's best trick. She would take a volunteer from the king's audience up to the stage and tell him to lift the king's chair. Of course, he wouldn't be able to do it. But then she would stare into his eyes for ten seconds and whisper something to him. Instantly, the man would walk to the king's chair and miraculously lift it.

I remember asking my mother how she and my father did these things. And I never forgot her answer.

"_Someday you will learn, and someday you will be able to do these things too_," she had said.

I just whined at what she said (it _had_ to be a joke) and went on with my life as a seven year-old. But little did I know that what she said was actually going to happen…

…..

_My whole room was in shambles. There were shards of glass scattered all over the floor. My sheets were ripped in half, and feathers were sprouting out from the holes in my pillows. Every mirror I owned was either broken or cracked, and all of my light bulbs had burst._

_At first I thought that we had been robbed. I screamed for my mother and she came running through the door in seconds._

_"Mom…who would…would do something like this? Did somebody break into our house last night?"_

_I jumped off my bed. I skipped over the pieces of glass and out of the room. There was something very wrong with this picture. Everything was in order and in place. Nothing was broken in the kitchen. Nothing was ripped in the library or in the halls._

_"...Mom?" My voice was barely above a whisper, and it was inaudible. "Who did this?"_

_Suddenly a horrible, horrible thought crossed my mind. I could feel my mother behind me, and I turned around slowly. It suddenly occured to me that a hint of shock never crossed my mother's face. She had been expecting this..._

_She looked at me solemnly. "My child...I told you it would happen someday." Her eyes were the saddest I had ever seen them._

…..

I wasn't arrogant. I hated bragging about what I had. But the truth?

I was great. I could be the most powerful being on the planet. I could read people's thoughts, and I had telekinesis. I make a person do anything I wanted. I had the ability to literally rip a person into shreds without laying a finger on them. I could annihilate everybody and everythingat this school and it would only take seconds. I was

I was great. That was the truth: the sick, twisted truth.

I was no doubt dangerous. My powers depended on whatever my mood was. When I was sad, plants would droop and wilt, and the weakest people around me would feel the same way. When I was happy (a rare thing), the room would literally brighten. Light bulbs or anything that was fragile would burst and shatter into pieces. I never figured out what would happen when I was angry, but I was sure it was something catastrophic. I always had to be careful about my temper, or else something would blow up or someone would get seriously hurt. I knew that my father had the same issues.

My mind snapped back to the assignment. There was no way I could write any of this down. It was too much for any normal person to read. I decided I wasn't going to turn the essay in on Monday.

I went to bed that night, thinking of all the things that might go wrong. Light bulbs and mirrors were always bursting whenever I came home stressed from school. I realized that sometime soon Kori was bound to find out about my powers. Would she still accept me? Or would she run away, just like everybody else who found out did. Bee and Gar were the only ones who accepted me along with my powers.

Suddenly I hated the skin I was in. A small tear trickled down my cheek.

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**A/N: I feel so sorry for Raven! All of the characters are either running away from something or hiding a hidden agenda when they come to this school. I know all of my chapters have been a little short, so I'll make sure that the next one is lengthy and has r-o-m-a-n-c-e in it.**

**Give me your thoughts on the chapter. My 40th review will get a special dedication and a recommendation about you to all my friends (I know alot of people) on FanFiction. Review! Peace out.**

**-_sTaRfIrExrObIn_**

[OO


	4. Garfield Logan

**I would like to dedicate this chapter to my 40th reviewer, **SuperJGirl5**. She's one of my best reviewers!**

**

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****Garfield Logan**

I could swear Richard's gloomy mood was contagious or something, because I, Garfield Logan, was never in a bad mood. Ever. And today I felt like I wanted to hurt someone and hurl at the same time.

The first week with him was almost irritating. He didn't talk, spent all of his time texting with somezombie back in Gotham, and hogged my videogames. That last part would annoy me the most.

But then the second week came by and he started opening up. Soon he was cracking jokes and talking more.

Sometimes I actually felt sorry for the guy. He seemed like the lonely rich kid type. He was pretty friendly, but then he spent the rest of his time in his room working on something top secret or up on the roof that only our floor had access to, since we were at the top floor. Nobody else really ever went up there.

There was something really weird about him, though. It was something I began to notice even though we had been living in the same dorm for a couple of weeks. every night he would sneak up to the roof until two o'clock in the morning. And then the weirdest part was that he came back in through the door panting, like he had been running the whole time, but he would never have any trace of sweat on his shirt. He was always carrying some kind of costume rolled up in a ball.

It was Sunday. That meant that school was going to start tomorrow. And that meant that my summer assignment was due tomorrow as well.

_Write a biography about you and your family._

"What a stupid topic," I scoffed aloud to myself.

I stared at the topic sentence for ten minutes until I realized that I had no idea what to write.

What could I possibly say? That underneath my normal looking skin was really flesh the same color as my green hair? That I was bit by some mutant green as a kid and now could turn into any creature in the universe with just a single thought? That I was a freak?

Because everything I had just said was true. I never did use my "powers" for anything really. I felt fine keeping them a secret from the world. The sad thing was that nobody wanted some green freak saving them. The world only wanted people like Superman or Robin, the normal, good-looking ones. As long as I had the rings that Victor made for me, keeping my disguise was nothing to worry about.

I sighed. I always had problems with these kind of essay topics. If only there was someone who knew who could help me...

There were only two people who knew me as a changling.

There was Victor, but he was too busy making kissy faces with Bee, his girlfriend.

My eyes suddenly lit up when the face of the other person popped into my head. It was a face I always had trouble getting off my mind...

**----------------------------**

"So why did you ask me to meet you here?" she asked in a monotonous tone.

"I, uh...missed you and wanted to say hi?" I teased her.

We were sitting in the student cafe. I had called her a few minutes ago. She sounded purely annoyed before she hung up the phone on me, but I knew she would come anyway. It was the kind of person she was.

"Yeah. I'm so sure," she said sarcastically.

I missed her sarcasm.

I looked at her, Raven Roth. She mystified me and she didn't even know it. There was a slight twinkle of joy in her amethyst eyes. Her black hair (I always tell her it's violet) and her pale skin were radiant. She was wearing a baggy black dress with her hair tied up into a messy ponytail.

Messy turned me on.

"Stop looking at me like that." The sound of her voice snapped me out of my gaze. "You're weirding me out."

"Right," I mumbled, embarassed. I scratched my head awkwardly.

"So?" She looked at me expectantly.

"Huh?" I slapped myself mentally for sounding so dumb.

"So why did you bring me here?" she hissed impatiently.

I loved her when she was angry.

I cleared my throat. "Rae, do you remember the summer assignment Mr. birch gave us?"

I saw her eyes soften the smallest bit. "Oh. That."

She knew my secret and what I could do with my abilities. She had seen them with her own eyes. And I had seen hers too. We had told each other last year about our abilities. We were friends, and only the best since our freshman year.

I waited for her answer.

"I'm not turning mine in," she said finally.

"Yeah. I guess I won't either."

We had another cup of coffee for the next hour until we finally stood up and walked outside in the center courtyard.

"I guess I'll see you?" I asked before we split.

"Yeah."

I turned around and started walking.

"Hey, Gar!"

I turned around again to see her fragile body facing me from a couple of yard away.

"Yeah?" I called out.

"Try not to sit by me tomorrow in AP Chem. Everybody knows what happened when we paired up last year."

Even from the distance I could see a small, joking smile on her face. Her smiles were rare, and I was usually the only one who saw them.

She went to her right for the Merainian Wing and I headed to my left for Galveston. Just before I reached the giant oak doors, I watched her slip into the building.

That night, I leaned against the terrace rail outside, staring across at the Merainian Building. It was a coincidence- Raven's room was on the fourth floor and she was standing on the balcony. I recognized the extra baggy black shirt she was wearing. She was talking to a redhead with green eyes that lit up the balcony. That must have been the princess she was rooming with. But I didn't pay too much attention to her.

I sneezed. I think I was lovesick. Victor would tease me to death if he knew who I was thinking of right now.

"Uh...Gar?"

All of a sudden I felt a tap on my shoulder. My train of thought completely crashed. I yelped, waved my arms wildly and turned around to find Richard with a funny look on his face. I reminded myself of one of those crazy fan girls.

My face must have looked completely ridiculous because he started cracking up.

"I'm gonna get you back, just watch," I said, half jokingly and half seriously.

After we calmed down, he rested on one of the sunbathing chairs. I went back to leaning against the

balcony and enjoying the sweet view.

Richard followed my gaze.

He whistled and punched my arm. "It looks like someone's crushing pretty hard."

I choked. Was I really that obvious?

"Pshh...no way," I blurted out a little bit too quickly. But after a moment, I couldn't shut up about it anymore.

"Yeah," I said. I gave up. I had been holding it in for too long. "Her name's Raven Roth. She's just so...wow, you now? I can't describe her." I sighed.

"I'll give you some time to think of some real adjectives," he said jokingly. He headed back inside.

It was getting late.

I stayed out some more. My eyes followed every move she made, and soon I was watching her disappear from my sight for the second time today.

I sighed again.

If only she knew how much I wanted her, how much I needed her.

After all, I was a selfish man.

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**A//N: Also, I'm so happy that most of you guys reviewed! A couple of you guys said that Raven may have been too powerful (which I think may be true), but I think my description did her character enough justice.**

**I promise that the next chapter will be longer than this one. It'll be about Kori and her encounter with Richard Grayson on her first day of school. They'll have strong feelings for each other...but not exactly in the way expected. Anyways, keep on reading, and you'll find out. I'll be posting the chapter up next week:**

**And also, read _SuperJGirl5's_ stories! I would recommend --> _"Finding Courage". _It's a really cute story about Starfire and Nightwing. **

**Please review. Reviews make my day. :**


	5. Kori Anders II

It was the first day of my junior year of high school. And I was about to barf.

Over the two weeks we had lived together, Karen Beech (or Bee), who lived next door with a pink-haired girl named Jinx, took me to the mall to get some real American looking clothes instead of the dorky pencil skirts and majorly conservative turtlenecks I brought from the palace.

I stared at the mirror. This was _so _not Princess Kori Anders of Tameran. It was much, much better.

I was wearing a plaid cowgirl vest on top of a plain black blouse with poufy sleeves and a denim skirt. My eyes shifted to my black ballet flats. I was used to wearing flats at the palace, but never with my legs so _exposed_.

"Raven?" I called in a shaky voice. "I-I've never worn anything like this..."

My voice trailed off as she came running in wearing a black vintage shirt with some band named "The Clash", tight pants, and velvet ballet flats.

"First of all, you look fine. And second? If you keep staring at yourself, we're going to be late. Really late. Now hurry!"

She grabbed my wrist and yanked me out the door with her. I could have sworn I heard something burst as we left. I glanced back just before she pulled me out the door. There were pieces of a light bulb scattered on the floor, with fresh smoke steaming from the shards.

**--------------------------------------**

It was weird walking into a room with twenty-eight people and not having a single one of them fall over me with their cameras and autograph books for once. It was different, but I liked it.

According to Raven, everyone at this school was either famous, a royal, or just plain rich. So basically, at this school, I was an equal. No special treatment just because I owned a country. Nothing.

And I couldn't be happier about it.

As the class went on, I found the whole subject of economics totally boring. Mr. Blood's voice kept going on and on about the grading system and his bulldog, which had nothing to do with economics. His voice was the type that was dangerous to listen to; it could put you to sleep in minutes.

It was a good thing I had Raven as my "work buddy", as Mr. Blood said. We were sharing a table with two seats.

I turned to look at Raven. She was snoring her head off. I was going to shake her awake, but somebody beat me to it and banged a fist on our desk. I looked up startled to see a very angry Mr. blood.

"Miss Roth, I will not permit sleeping in my class." Mr. Blood's voice almost sounded scary. "I don't even let my bulldog do that. It's disrespectful." He walked away and went back to speaking in his emotionless tone.

Raven stayed awake after that. We made sure we were lab partners when we got to Advanced Chemistry, our second class together. (It was my third period. We didn't have English together.)

I tried to pay attention in Chemistry, but when I looked at the clock and saw that it only passed twenty minutes, I slouched in my seat. I would just have to pass the time.

"Hey, Raven." I turned to her again and noticed that her eyes were slowly beginning to fluttered closed again. This time I nudged her sharply with my elbow.

She silently mouthed an "ouch" and gave me an annoyed look. "What?" she hissed.

"You've been going here since your freshman year, right? Tell me all about every single one of these people. I want to know more about them. Please?"

But I didn't have to ask her as nicely as I did, because there was a strange look in her purple eyes. I think it was eagerness because of the fact that she had something to do in the class.

"Okay. That's Garth over there." She was refering to the guy with jet-black guy. He looked like Raven's type: long black (and almost rebellious) hair, tight pants and a rocker t-shirt, and almost japanese looking with almond eyes. "You're looking at the team captain of the swim team. He's prety smart, too. And really sweet. He gives good presents on Valentine's Day. And his abs are pretty hardcore."

I took my eyes off of him and looked at Raven with my eyebrows raised. "Now how would _you _know that?"

Her eyes went wide when she realized what she said. "That's not important." At one point, I thought I heard someone's pencil snap.

She went out with him. It made perfect sense. I tried my hardest not to laugh. Not because the idea of them was silly, because the two of them made a perfect couple. Both of them and their tight jeans, unique looks, and rocker t-shirts. But I pushed the idea out of my mind for the meantime.

"See that girl right there?" She pointed to a girl covered in pink with blonde hair. "That's Kitten Moth. That, right there, is the biggest monster you will ever meet here."

"Why?"

"Her dad owns S.T.A.R. Labs, which makes her think that she's as important as him. For some reason, all the guys here want grabs on her. she's done some of the worst things at this school. She's destroyed people within a couple of days with rumors and her stupid schemes. Last year she was suspected for food poisoning some girl from the school newpaper for writing an article about her. If I were you, I'd stay away from her."

For some reason I didn't feel the least bit afraid or intimidated by Kitten. "Keep going," I said excited. This class was suddenly starting to get better.

"That's Donna over there. Her parents own five islands," Raven said, gesturing to a pretty girl with black hair and clear blue eyes. "She's slept with almost half the guys on the football team."

I could tell that Raven was having fun with this too. In the next twenty minutes, I knew every single detail there was to know about over half the class.

Roy Harper, junior class president and archery star, was an overall good guy and heartthrob of the school. I caught him looking at me twice wile Raven was talking to me.

And Garfield Logan, with his green hair, was the class clown and the life of every party. His father was a famous scientist. He and Raven had been friends for two years. She might have said that they were only friends, but I could have sworn I heard her voice swoon just a little when she said his name.

There was Terra Markov, blonde and super skinny with a model physique. She was known to be a cheater when it came to both school _and _boys. Raven didn't seem to like her very much.

"That's Wally West," Raven explained. "He's a major flirt. Or he used to be. Jinx has been shaping him up ever since they became a couple. He's pretty cool though, once you get to meet him."

She said the last part shyly, and I noticed that her pale cheeks were unusually scarlet.

"Why are you blushing?" I asked. I loved teasing her; it was so funny when she got mad.

At first she looked reluctant to say anything. And then embarassed. "I, uh, went out with him for three months last year."

I looked at her, interested. Wally didn't look like the type who was into goths. "Really? Why did you guys break up?"

"I liked someone else...so I called it quits."

At that moment I knew who it was. I remembered how she said his name, and how he said hers. I knew she looked at him differently than how she looked at Wally.

There were only two possibilities: she either liked Gar, or she was still in love with Garth. I smiled. It was just too cute. I didn't want to push any questions on her even though I was practically dying of curiousity.

She didn't answer, but she let me know that she appreciated whatever I had done just then. She changed the subject.

"And see that guy looking at you right now?" Raven asked. She pointed to a guy with chestnut brown hair and matching hazel eyes. Underneath his shirt I could see a muscular form. He wasn't too buff, but at the same time he was very well-built.

"Mmm-hmm?" I mumbled absentmindedly. I was enjoying the view.

"That's Xavier Red. every girl at this school wants him. He only dates exotic girls, the prettiest. He's a total player, though. And a pervert sometimes. Once in a while he'll get over himself and do something special for a girl. But just to be safe, I'd steer clear of him if I were you. He'll just manipulate you and make you a trophy just like the rest of his bimbos."

"Oh." I was disappointed. Every time a good looking guy passed my eyes, he would be arrogant, a major player, or just socially retarded. And whenever there was a nice, witty guy, he always had some flaw, like his nose was too big, or worse, that he was shorter than me.

I sat there thinking to myself until I found myself staring at something even better than Xavier Red.

I recognized him at once- not just because he was taller than most of the guys I had seen, but also because he had such a distinctive face. It was handsome, strong, and attractive. And nice to look at. And strong-looking, with a lean muscular figure to match. His hair was an ebony black, and his best quality were his pair of crystal clear blue eyes.

I didn't need to ask Raven about this guy. I had read enough about him in the American magazines I used to read in Tameran (it was how I spoke english so well).

His name was Richard Grayson, son of millionaire businessman Bruce Wayne. He was only my age, sixteen, but he dated most of young Hollywood. From what I read, he cheated on every single one of his girlfriends with the same girl, a redhead who was my age who was supposedly a commissioner's daughter. He was a bad boy, a rebel, a womanizer.

Suddenly I didn't want to have anything to do with him. Now I didn't like him so much.

The bell rang. Raven and I rose from our seats and followed the crowd out the door until Mrs. Winehouse called us to her desk.

"Yes?" we asked in unison.

"Mr. Whitman has made me aware of your short attention span. And I will not allow it in my class." She gave us a stern look. "As of tomorrow, I will be reassigning new seats for the two of you."

Great. It was the first day of school and we had gotten ourselves in trouble twice. I gave Raven a worried look, expecting her to have the same expression on her face. But she looked at me with dull eyes, as if she was bored of getting in trouble. We walked out of the classroom in silence.

By the end of the day, I found out that I had two classes with Raven. I made friends with Garfield when I sat between him and a tall quarterback named Victor in Calculus.

Everything was good.

**--------------------------------------**

I couldn't believe it.

Mr. Blood had changed our seats. Now Raven was sitting beside the infamous Terra. And I was sitting next to a Richard Grayson. I wasn't nervous, though. He didn't scare me.

For the first ten minutes, he didn't talk at all. I could feel him eyeing me once in a while. I threw a few glances at him, but only out of curiousity. I wanted to see if he was really what the tabloids made him out to be. And for some reason, I wanted to prove the tabloids wrong.

Mr. Blood had introduced a project to us. He was passing out the sheets to each group when he said, "I want you to discuss your plans for the presentation with your partner, and distribute the work between the two of you."

At once the whole room became full of different conversations. Left and right, everybody was talking to their partner. I looked over at Terra and Raven. Even they were discussing the project.

We just sat there. Mayebe he was confused about the presentation. Maybe he was just waiting for me to say something. Or maybe he just didn't want to do it.

I decided to go with my first theory. It sounded the best.

"Uh...do you need me to explain anything to you? Because we haven't discussed anything and this presentation is due in two days," I said.

He didn't even look at me. "Yeah. Sure. Whatever...I get it," he muttered, almost carelessly.

I passed along the worksheet to him and started working on mine. After a few minutes I fiished it and turned to look at his. There was nothing on it.

"You haven't written a thing on your paper." I hated stating the obvious, but I couldn't help it. I was starting to lose my patience.

Fortunately, the bell rang and I stormed out the door to my other classes before I could say anything else.

When I got to English, I froze. Richard Grayson was sitting in the desk nearest to the door. I wanted to run..._badly_. But I didn't, because fortunately I was sitting at the opposite side of the room from him. I relaxed and cooled off before my next class.

When I got to AP Chemistry, I waited to see if I was still sitting next to Raven. I walked up to Raven and the empty stool beside her.

"Please tell me I still sit here," I begged her.

Raven gave me a funny look. "Why?"

I told her all about first period. And then about second period. She laughed the whole time. I honestly didn't find anything about it funny.

"Gar's been rooming with him for two and a half weeks now. He says he's pretty cool, and..."

Mrs. Winehouse's voice interrupted our conversation. "Miss Anders and Miss Roth, I've had enough of you both. It's high time that you two are separated from each other. Now who do I want you two to sit beside?"

The room was silent. I bet the whole class was enjoying this.

"Sickos," I muttered under my breath.

"Oh, Mrs. Winehouse?" a voice piped up from the front. "You can move me next to Grayson." She smirked and threw a wink at Richard.

He ignored it. Raven and I saw it and snickered to ourselves while kitten and Mrs. Winehouse glared at us. But we couldn't stop and soon the whole class was watching us crack up like lunatics.

Mrs. Winehouse looked even angrier. This time I actually shut up. I was worried. I hoped that her anger didn't get in the way of her judgement.

"Kitten, I think you are fine where you are seated," our teacher said.

Kitten frowned.

"Kori, I want you to take your belongings and switch seats with Mr. Logan."

I looked over to see who Gar had been seated with. Now it was my turn to frown.

I knew why she sat me there. In front of me sat Roy Harper and Garth. Behind me were Xavier Red and Wally West. And beside me? I didn't even want to think of his name right now.

I walked across the room and plopped down unhappily on my stool next to none other than Richard Grayson.

"Hey, Stranger." His voice made my heart stop, but I ignored it. He was the enemy. Well, at least that was what I kept trying to tell myself.

I tried to make my voice sound as unpleasant as I felt. "Ugh. You again."

He looked at me curiously. I felt my heart beat a little faster as his blue eyes narrowed. "And what is it that you hate so much about me?"

"You're lazy. You couldn't care less about my grade in Economics. Your hair is so black it's blinding me. In other words, everything you are."

Roy turned around to look at us. "Ouch, Grayson."

Richard ignored him (which I noticed was a very bad habit of his) and at me straight in the eye. "Listen, Anders. I'm not here to get straight A's like you. I just want to get out of this place, so let me fail my classes and everything'll be good. Got it?"

My heart stopped flopping around and fired up with anger. Was this guy serious, or was it some kind of sick joke? Was he purposely trying to fail?

"Are you serious? Or are you just plain stupid?" I asked incredulously. I was surprised by my own words. "If _you _fail, then _I_ fail. And I don't want to fail. If I fail, that means I go home. And I don't want to go there either."

Unfortunately, that was all true. The only reason Caklan had even considered sending me here was because he had heard of the school from a nearby duke. I had to beg and cry for him to let me come here. He did eventually, only on the condition that I maintain good grades for both semesters (which in Caklan Language means all A's). If not, I was going to be sent home...and that was not going to happen anytime soon.

I was going to make sure of it.

"Trust me, I'm not dumb. I was at the top of my class back at Gotham. I just don't want to be here. When Bruce sees how bad I'm doing here, he'll freak and take me back home," he said. "And besides, I know all about you, Princess. Your life is perfect. Every prince in the world wants to marry you when you turn eighteen, and you're going to be queen someday. Honestly, I don't even know why you're complaining."

My mouth dropped open. The nerve! Who did this guy think he was? Sure, everything he said was true, but there was way more to it. Almost too much.

"You don't even know me! Besides, from what I've heard about you, you _need _this place. You're arrogant, you've never lifted a finger in your life, and you treat girls like objects."

I smirked when he didn't have anything to say, and I had the biggest urge to stick my tongue out at him and gloat like a five year-old.

The rest of the day, I found out, was hell. It took six hours for me to realize that I had every class with Richard Grayson. And in every class, I was either sitting next to, in front of, or behind the guy. Was this some kind of test? I mean, what kind of idiot would make me have to spend six hours a day with Richard Grayson, the scum of the Earth? I'm sure Kitten would have been glad to do it herself.

One thing that annoyed the most was that he kept calling me by my last name, which I did not appreciate. So I called him by his.

In French, he sat behind me and played around with strands of my hair. I turned around and raised my fingers to make a peace sign. And then I poked them lightly into his eyes.

Richard slapped his hands to his eyes. "Ow!" he yelped.

Roy, who was sitting nearby, gave me a look mixed with awe and admiration. "Damn, Kori. I didn't know you had it in you."

He flashed me a smile and it made my heart flop a little. I could hear Richard grunt a little behind me.

In P.E., Richard and I were on the same team for football. I hurled the ball at him as hard as I could. It hit his stomach and caused him to bend over in pain. He glared at me and I doubled up in laughter while Victor switched his gaze between the two of us with a confused look on his face.

"Rich people are the weirdest," he said, shaking his head in wonder.

In 6th period Calculus I sat behind him. I recognized his spiked black hair and this time I didn't even try to hide my disgust.

"I can't believe we have six periods together," I said, tired from my long day.

He turned around in his seat and I could see my relfection in his clear blue eyes. "Tell me about it. I think I'm being punished by all of my ex-girlfriends."

I cocked my head to the side, giving him a knowing look. "Come on, I can't be that bad, can I?"

He thought about it for a second and raised an eyebrow. "You poked my eyes out in French, you tried to kill me with a football last period, and you still think that you're not that bad?"

"Well..." I waited for him to respond.

"Somebody needs a reality check," he said.

We were both silent for a minute or two before I spoke up again.

"I hate you."

"I hate you more," he said.

"No, _I_ hate you more."

"Fine."

"_Fine_." I looked at him with challenging eyes.

"Fine!"

"FINE!"

The class spent the entire time watching us argue. We were practically wrestling on top of each other, with me yelling at the top of my lungs and Richard trying to pin me down to the ground, by the time our teacher came over and told us to be quiet.

We got a detention. One that we had to serve for six hours at the end of the month.

It was basically like this for the first two weeks of school. I ended up doing all of the work for our presentation, and when I wasn't working like crazy, I was either complaining to my friends about Richard or talking to Roy, who was turning out to be the complete opposite of Richard. He even offered to help with the project on Thrusday night.

By the end of the second week, I flopped on my bed. I was angry, frustrated, and just plain tired. And worst of all, in another two weeks, I was going to be stuck in a room for six hours with the person I hated the most serving my first detention.

School sucked.

* * *

**A//N****: Yup, the destined lovebirds hate each other. Badly. Things will change in the future, but not too soon. I know I made Richard come off as a jerk, but he really just wants to go home. And Kori isn't that much of a goody-goody. Trust me, you'll be seeing one of those tough-girl rebellious sides to her.**

**Also, I just love Amy Winehouse's musi, so I made her a teacher. But Mrs. Winehouse doesn't look like a druggie in this story (no offense to the real Amy Winehouse), so no worries. :o**

**Thanks to all the people who reviewed for the last chapter. I love reading all the stuff you guys write to me, so thanks. For the comments, suggestions, and ideas. I love em.**

**Please review! Reviews make me super happy. **


	6. Richard Grayson II

**Richard Grayson**

"Your project is simple: interview your partner and write a fictionalized report of where you think they'll be financially in ten years. I've written one on my bulldog, and I have to that it's turned out great..."

It was the third week of school. By now most of the class had learned to ignore Mr. Blood when he babbled. I only listened to the important parts, which were when he passed back our grades and when he dismissed the class. Other than that, I just sat there and texted every number I had in my phone.

"So I guess I'm doing everything?" she said, turning her torso to me.

But something surprised me. As soon as she looked at me she clamped her hand on her mouth and smothered small giggles.

"Yeah. Or...you don't have to do anything and just let us fail." I tried to give her a serious look by furrowing my eyebrows together, but I think it just made it harder for her _not _to laugh.

I felt bad. The girl was going crazy. It was a geniune feeling of guilt. I just wanted to get out of this place, this prison. I wasn't sure if it was worth spoiling her chances of being able to stay here, according to what she said about how strict her stepfather was. I thought about it every time she gave me a look with hope in her eyes for me, and everytime my brain automatically gave me the same answer: Yes.

I admired that the girl had strength and spunk. But maybe she had too much of both. Maybe that was what bugged me so much about her, the fact that she was as manipulative and strong as me.

"Just give buy the materials, give them to me, and I'll have it finished by Thursday." Kori looked at me just how she did everyday: annoyed and wary.

I looked at her lazily. "Why do _I _have to buy the materials? Can't you go get them?"

"What's so hard about getting a few report folders? All you have to do is go to the student store and ask them for some. The building right next to Galveston."

This girl never gave up. She was always trying to make me do something for a project, just to make sure that I was having some part in it. And I did _not _feel like going to a little shop that nerds considered their favorite store, where they sold calculators and pencils. And the fact that it was next to the girls' bathroom made me shudder even more. That was where Kitten Moth spent most of her time, looking at herself and trying to catch boys' eyes.

I had no intention of letting her see me. If I even glanced for a second at her, she would go telling everyone on campus that we were a couple.

"They're...I..."

I tried to think of something fast while Kori looked at me expectantly. She was trying to fight a smug smirk that was coming onto her face.

"They're too expensive." It was the lamest thing I could think of to say.

"They cost 50 cents."

"Y-Yeah. What's your point?" I stammered. I was running out of excuses

She didn't look as stressed or panicked as I thought she would have been, actually quite calm. She twirled her hair around her fingers absentmindedly. "Well...would you feel better if someone came with you?"

I could feel a light bulb in my head suddenly switch on. If Kitten saw me with another girl, she wouldn't bother me. She would think that we were on a date. She wouldn't have the nerve to come up and flirt with me then. "Stalk me" was the right term, actually.

"Yes!" I burst out. "Go get someone. A girl."

Kori looked at me like I had something sticking out of my nose. She probably wasn't used to seeing me with so much energy or excitement.

"Okay." She turned around in her seat and waved over to someone in the back. "Oh, Kitten! Over here-"

She was good at eliminating my options, I had to admit. I panicked. While she was calling over to get Kitten's attention, I pulled her hands together to restrain them with one of mine and put my other hand over her mouth to muffle her voice.

"Fine. I'll buy the stupid folders," I surrendered. "Happy now?"

She tilted her head to the side a little bit and smiled calmly, knowing that her plan worked. "Yes. Do you mind me telling you something though?"

I groaned. It would probably be something like _you and Kitten belong together _or _you're such a lazy, big headed jerk who doesn't deserve everything you have_. And I was in no mood for another lesson on my virtues.

"What is it?"

"You have a little something on your face." She giggled and said something soft under her breath.

"What?"

Turning to the window, I moved back and forth, trying to catch my reflection in the window's glare. There was a nasty green dot on my face, just below my nose and slightly above my mouth. I put my finger on it, but I didn't feel anything. It took me a couple of seconds to figure out what it was. Better late than never.

I looked over at Gar, who was looking at me with a crazy smirk on his face. And I was about ready to wipe it _off_. He snapped his head the opposite direction when I looked at him with a snarl.

"Told you...I was gonna...get you back," he said between laughs. He fell off his chair, practically lying on the floor dying from laughter.

This was just great. I slouched in my seat and frowned. I looked like a five year-old who didn't know what a tissue was.

"Magic Marker freak," I muttered.

Roy, who was sitting at the table nearest to us, turned around and flashed a smile at Kori.

"Need help on your project, Kori? I'm not doing anything on Wednesday night," he said smoothly.

I groaned inwardly. A nasty looking dot on my face _and _another foiled attempt at an F. Could my day be getting any worse?

In a second, that annoyed look in her eyes disappeared. I thought I was going to be even sicker when Kori smiled sweetly at him. It only reminded me more of Babs and how bored I was without her.

"How cheesy can you guys get?" I grumbled.

I had no idea what special quality Roy saw in Kori other than the fact that she owned miles and miles of European land. It was a lie to say that she wasn't beautiful, because her beauty set her apart from every other girl at this school. Long, auburn hair flowed down past her shoulders in edgy layers, and her bronze skin seemed to emit a glow. Her eyes were like emeralds, changing colors depending on what kind of mood she was in. They would transition from a light, bouncy green to a darker shade whenever she saw me. I guess that was an effect of me being an ass to her.

But it was her personality that constantly reminded me why I wasn't the least bit friendly to her. She was as boring as a rock. I was the only one who saw her evil side. She rarely did anything wrong, and when she did she would apologize until the person had to stick earplugs in their ears. The worst thing I had seen her do in class was crinkle a page in a chemistry book. Maybe if she wasn't acting like some etiquette robot, following all the rules all the time, we could have gotten along quite fairly...

Kori ignored me and pushed me aside, her smile getting even wider. She was nervous. "Yeah. Are you sure you don't mind? I mean, this is the third time you offered to help and I..."

"Don't worry. It's cool." He grinned again and turned back to Donna, who didn't look too happy.

"What about our project?" I heard her whine.

Kori was still smiling when she swiveled her body back to me again. She sighed blissfully. "Isn't he just..."

"Yeah, yeah. Save it for one of your girlie little sleepovers. I'm sure Raven would just love to hear what you think about Roy. I swear, that guy must have a stick shoved up his-"

"Please stop talking about yourself, Grayson. We all know you have medical issues," she interrupted. She was obviously irritated that I had ruined the moment.

"Fine. I'm sorry."

She looked at me surprised. "Really?"

"No."

She giggled softly. "I should have known."

Ten seconds later, I realized something. Babs' laugh was high-pitched and fake, like she was forcing herself to laugh just to go along with everybody else.

Kori's laugh was sincere.

**--------------------------------------**

It was a Friday night. We got A's on our reports, thanks to my brainiac partner, which was the biggest disappointment of the week. I did however, get a B- on a paper I wrote in English. It wasn't an F, but it was closer to an F than an A.

I rewarded myself with the best thing I had so far: a night in the city. But not as Richard Grayson. As Robin.

I grabbed my suit and ran up the stairs to the roof as soon as the clock struck nine, which was usually the time when I started the nightwatch back in Gotham. Gar and Victor had gone to the cafe with Bee and Raven, who seemed to hate me for a reason I wasn't aware of.

I changed into my costume up on the rooftop, in a dark corner where I couldn't be seen. I locked the door to block access to the roof while I was gone. I prided myself on the fact that it was a pretty good system, and that I hadn't been caught.

I was hiding my clothes in a hole I had drilled into the wall during my first week here when I caught something from the corner of my eye.

At first I couldn't identify what it was. It was a person, and I could tell it was a girl from the tall, slender figure. She was making her way across the Galveston Gardens when she looked around suspiciously to see if anyone was around. And when I caught a glimpse of her face as it shone in the moonlight, my eyes went wide underneath my mask with surprise .

It was Kori. I recognized those green eyes as soon as I saw them gleaming with a hint of freedom. She was wearing a trenchcoat and boots, and she skipped across the garden carelessly.

I was surprised to see her get through the garden maze without running herself into dead ends. It was obvious that she had done it before. Most likely more than once, because I had heard of some people who actually got lost and had to be found by the rescue teams.

Suddenly I had the biggest urge to go down there myself and ask her what she was doing, coming out from the male dorms. Was she with somebody? And if she was, who was it? What were they doing?

I watched her silently, waiting to see what she would do next. When she neared the ten-foot tall wall, she stopped. She ran towards it fast and jumped onto it, then her finger slipping into the small cracks between bricks. She made her way up the wall until she reached the top and stood on top of it for a few seconds to catch her breath. A couple of seconds passed, and then she jumped off the wall, landing on her feet on the other side.

By this time I didn't want to miss a thing she was going to do next. I swooped down and jumped on the tall hedges of the garden maze and soon, over the wall.

I saw her. She was running fast now, and to the west. As I followed behind her, I realized that she was going to the train station. Was she running away? No...she didn't have anything with her besides her coat.

Maybe she was drunk and didn't know what she was doing. Or possibly a fight with her roommate.

But she seemed perfectly fine, with a happy half-smile on her face, and she wasn't staggering around like a normal drunk would.

She reached the subway in a couple of minutes, with me trailing not too far behind her. The train was taking her to the city.

Hmm...now what would a princess be going into the city for?

As I sat on top of the train, I debated with myself. I wasn't following her because I wanted to. I had to keep an eye on her. Who knew what she could run into? Besides, "Raven and Co." wouldn't be too happy to hear that their friend went missing in the city.

I watched her walk through the doors into the train. "Crazy girl," I muttered to myself.

**--------------------------------------**

She went through Galveston Garden, jumped a wall, ran two miles, and took a graffitied subway as dirty as New York's...all just to buy junk food at the nearest 7-Eleven, eat a slice of pizza, and get a couple of cds. She went into a hunting shop, the most interesting of all, but didn't come out with anything new. Or so I thought.

It was midnight when I glanced at the clock tower. She was heading back for the subway. She stopped a couple of people for directions, licked her lips thoughtfully.

I went from building to building, unable to tear my eyes away from her. As boring as it all sounded, I was intrigued. I never found her so interesting until now. Who knew there was a rebel inside Princess Perfect?

And then I noticed something weird. I saw the same man walking the same pace behind her, the one from the last street.

He was following her.

She didn't seem to notice, but I saw that she started to walk faster. That was, until she came to a plain brick wall. It was a dead end. She was all alone with that creep in a dark, secluded alley.

Suddenly my heart began to beat faster.

"Hi," she said, greeting him with a small smile. "I'm lost. Do you know how I can get to the subway from here?"

It all happened so fast after that. He dug his hand into his jacket and pulled out a shiny, black pistol. When I blinked, his finger was suddenly resting on the trigger and the gun was pressed to her temple. "You ain't gonna reach the subway, girl. Now give me your wallet."

Her smile quickly disappeared. "What?"

He pushed the gun even deeper into her head. "Now!"

Kori just stood there frozen, like she had shut herself down. "Please...please don't..."

_Run away _were the words I was dying to shout to her. But I couldn't risk it.

Though I had been going into the city on night patrol, I never really showed myself to the people of Jump City. And so far, it was working, because I hadn't been caught by the media yet. Normally I enjoyed the glory of being seen as a superhero, but having the word spread that Robin was in Jump City was even worse than staying at Victoria Prep.

If news reached Gotham, Bruce, or Babs, everything would fall apart. Gotham would send its paparrazzi for coverage of their hero. Babs, who also knew my other alias, would know where I was, hunt me down, and suffocate me by sticking to me 24/7. And then there was Bruce, who made me promise not to go off as Robin. Nobody liked Bruce when he was angry.

It was the first time I had space. No mob of paparrazzi and flashing cameras in my face. No Babs clinging to my side every minute of the day. No Bruce on my back, pressuring me to get into Harvard. Suddenly I realized that I didn't want to go back to Gotham so soon.

I felt like I had no choice. "I can't," I pleaded softly with myself. I couldn't rescue her.

He shoved her roughly against the brick wall hard and pulled his face near hers. It was sick. My heartbeat echoed loudly in my ears.

"Now I thought I told you to give me your wallet. Don't make me pull this trigger, girl." He smirked and traced a finger slowly down her cheek as she winced slightly. "We wouldn't want your pretty face ruined, now would we?"

The bouncy light green in her eyes was suddenly replaced with dark jade.

"Asshole," she said angrily with a snarl. She spit forcefully in his face.

"Take a good look, doll. Cause this is the last minute of your life."

His finger seemed to push down on the trigger in slow motion, but my mind was running around crazily, pressing for a quick, impulsive decision.

Should I save my royal but equally annoying lab partner, the one I saw six hours a day and five days a week? It would let the whole world know that Robin relocated to Jump City and double my chances of having my identity found out. It would give Bruse license to keep me locked in an office, away from the world for the rest of my life. Robin could possibly not exist after this.

Or should I save my own butt and run away? It seemed like the best option right now. Bruce would never know that I had been sneaking out as Robin. And that would give me a chance to fail, without Kori turning in flawless reports. Nagging and work would be history. I would be back in Gotham in no time...

I screamed. Mentally, of course. What was I thinking? I was a superhero (for some reason I hated calling myself that).

I looked at her face.

It was remarkably calm, like she didn't care if he shot her. At one point I couldn't take it anymore. I jumped off the building and in between them, knocking the gun out of the man's hand.

"Get away from her." I looked at him fiercely.

The man, who looked about twenty, stared at me with a frightened realization. "I-It's true what they said...you really _are _in Jump City..."

"And you better get out of here before I kick you _out_," I growled, surprising myself with my anger.

He staggered away, still dumbfounded, and sprinted out of the alley.

I turned to Kori. She looked at me like she just _knew _I was going to save her. Maybe I shouldn't be so predictable...

"You come here often?" I asked her. Normally I wouldn't care, but I wasn't Richard Grayson, the boy she hated having six classes with. I was Robin, and Robin cared about everyone.

Her eyes gleamed with a cool breeze. She looked the least bit traumatized. Usually people who were held at gunpoint would start bawling into my suit. I watched her smooth her coat out. "I try to go to the city whenever I can"

"You shouldn't be ditching school for gummy bears and Paramore cds, you know," I said smirking.

"She stopped fixing her coat and looked up at me. An eyebrow was raised. "So you've been following me, huh? What took you so long to save me?"

I saw a smile on her face. "No reason. I just wanted to see how you handled yourself."

"Well I, for one, think that I handled myself pretty well. Besides, shoudn't Robin be in Gotham right now?"

Great. She knew, and she wasn't even from this country.

For a second I didn't know what to say. I just stared at her dumbly. "Well...I-I..."

Kori laughed. "It's okay, you don't have to answer that question. What Batman doesn't know won't hurt him, right?"

I grinned. "Yeah. I guess so."

"So can _you _tell me where the subway is?" she asked.

"Down Portman street, make a left on 29th, and another left on Joplan Avenue."

"Okay." She looked up at me, her green eyes twinkling. "Thanks. For everything. I owe you my life right now."

"It's cool. So I guess I'll be seeing you in the city alot? I'll be here for directions when you need me," I joked.

Wait...did I actually just say that? I shook my head.

"I'll be counting on you," she said with a smirk, and she turned and walked away.

I gazed after her in awe. So that was what she was like when she wasn't with the annoying, lazy Richard. I half expected her to fall over and throw herself just like all the other girls (and even guys) I had saved. But she didn't She treated me like I was...normal, something that Robin was far from.

She was different.

On Monday, I greeted her with a curious smile as she sat down in her seat beside me. She raised an eyebrow and gave me one of those You're-even-weirder-than-I-thought looks. I couldn't blame her. Usually I just ignored her when she came in.

"Hey, Anders. How was your weekend?" I asked.

She shrugged. "Uh...just the usual, that's all."

"Meet anyone new?" I pressed. I knew I was pushing my chances of getting caught and having my identity of Robin found out. But I couldn't help seeing what kind of person she was. The attention-seeking people were the ones who bragged about how I rescued them. There was rarely a person who kept it to themselves.

Her face looked blank. "No..."

I had to admit, she was a good actress. And a good liar. I turned away and let her go crazy with the assignment Mr. Blood had passed out.

But a particular thing happened after that. She sighed. Quietly, and almost secretive. With relief.

"Crazy girl," I muttered under my breath.

* * *

**A//N****: Another chapter is finished! **

**I really appreciate all of the reviews I recieved. Alot of you said that you liked how Richard and Kori hate each other. Richard see Kori differently now though. He still doesn't like her, but he doesn't think of her as an uptight workaholic anymore.**

**Please review. All thoughts, ideas, comments, and critiques are appreciated with love. **


	7. Raven Roth II

**Raven Roth**

I gazed at the boy sitting at the table across the quad, with the rest of his team beside him. Typical jocks- they loyally followed their captain and did whatever he did. Maybe that was why he left us. I missed the days when he used to sit with us, before he let all of that popularity and team captain status get into his head. The days when he used to hold my hand in front of his teammates without his face turning scarlet.

He was the perfect male specimen. Well, for a punker like me. I had forgotten why I broke up with him in the first place. He was absolutely perfect.

"What are you staring at?"

I shook out of my gaze immediately and turned to look at my friends. Gar's friend Richard sat across from me with a weirded out look, where he ignored Kori the rest of the time. Kori sat on one side of me, looking like she was going to burst out laughing. Bee and Victor were sitting at the other end, their faces red from trying to hold back their giggles. Garfield, who was sitting on my other side, had some kind of twisted look on his face.

"I-I was looking at the...um..."

"Does someone have a crush on a certain swim team captain?" Kori beamed her pearly whites until she almost blinded me. She gave me a thumbs up.

Thanks to Kori, keeping it a secret was useless now. "Well..."

"I think you should go talk to him, girl," Bee said. "You know, again. The way you guys _used _to..." She gave me a mischievious smile.

"No way, I-"

"I don't see what's so great about him," Gar huffed. "He's just another one of those steriod type airheads who doesn't care about anything but himself."

Soon the whole table started arguing about their opinions on Garth. Victor said Garth was bad for me. Bee retorted back, saying the Garth and I were perfect together. Kori, loyal as always, came to my defense and fought with Richard, who looked about ready to explode. Gar sat beside me with his arms crossed looking irritated and angry. But not with Kori. With me. But the worst part came a few seconds after I noticed that Garth wasn't sitting at his table anymore, crowded by his teammates.

A finger tapped lightly on my shoulder. I turned around to find Garth with a small grin on his face.

"Someone talking about me?" he asked.

By this time, I couldn't take anything else that was random enough to get me angry. I yelled at my table to keep quiet and then stalked off towards the Merainian Wing, leaving Garth looking completely confused.

I wasn't going to lie- I was the most physically out of shape person I knew. I had seen Gar's abs and biceps. Bee was a workout freak; she couldn't stay away from the gym for more than a day. Kori was tall and slender but toned. And then there was Victor, who was no doubt getting a load full of a workout at football practice everyday. I had always been slim and slender, but I knew it was only because of the herbal teas I drank and vegetables I stuffed in my mouth.

So walking across the campus all the way to the Merainian Wing had me panting. And I was only halfway there. I had wanted to make a dramatic exit. You know, when the girl in the movie storms off to get away from her friends, slams the bedroom door, and then stays in her bedroom without dinner for the night. Unfortunately, that girl only had to go up the stairs to get to her room. I had to walk half a mile and up four staircases to get to mine.

I refused to stop. I knew they were all still staring after me. I could imagine what they would all be thinking. Bee and Victor would be wondering what was taking me so long to get to the Merainian Wing. Kori would be sick with worry and guilt, but probably still arguing with Richard. There would be a smug smirk on Gar's face, mainly because he knew I couldn't get there as fast as I wanted to.

Sweating underneath the hot sun, I finally persuaded myself to rest on the bench underneath the shade of a tree. I wonder what Garth was thinking of right now. Or who...

"Raven?"

I jumped up in surprise and found Garth sitting behind me. He was sweaty from following after me, and his disheveled hair was blacker than ever as he ran his hand through it. His shirt was sweaty, and underneath it I could make out the form of his six-pack as it clung to him. He was grinning down at me, like he knew I was happy to see him.

I was. But I didn't let it show. "What do you want?"

"For you to put a freaking smile on your face for once. You look like one of those sad clowns."

"Ha," I said sarcastically. "Nothing you can do can make me smile right now."

He stood up. "Come'on, I'll walk you to your room." He looked at me expectantly.

I rolled my eyes and stood up. "Fine."

As we walked, I studied his face intently from the corner of my eye. He changed. It wasn't very noticeable to the naked eye, but it was for someone who had known him since freshman year. His black eyes held some kind of brew of mixed emotions, like he wasn't content with what he had, what he was. He wanted to say something to me.

"I know you're doing one of your little studies on me right now," he said, still staring straight ahead at the brick building we were heading to.

"Oh. Sorry. You just seem a little bit different, you know?"

"How?"

Despite the sudden balls of fury that were being thrown in my mind, I kept my cool. "For starters, we never talk. When we do, it's about one of your teammates or some new technique you learned for backstroke or something."

"Well, I _have _been working pretty hard on my backstroke." He grinned, making it hard for me to get mad at him. "Kidding, Raven."

I panicked when I felt my anger disappearing. Usually I tried my hardest to drive it away, but this time I wanted to show Garth how angry I was. "And I never thought you were the type to ditch people you've known longer than a couple of jocks. People who liked you _before _you became team captain," I said, my voice sharper to my surprise.

He grimaced and closed his eyes, groaning. "I'm sorry. I don't know how many times I've told you. It's just..." His voice trailed off when he opened his eyes to look at me, dreams blooming in his dark eyes. "Do you know what it feels like to be a leader? To be special?"

Of course I knew what it was like to be "special". My powers made me "special" enough to make me a freak. Special was an understatement. "No," I lied.

"These guys look up to me. I always have to inspire them, keep them motivated. I have to lead them." He looked at me.

I looked at him incredulously. "So they're more important than your friends?"

We walked up the steps of the Merainian Building. It had been a shorter walk than I expected it to be. He looked at me, face to face. I refused to look at him in the eye, and I stared down stubbornly at the white pillar behind him. He saw this and chuckled softly, putting his hand to one side of my face and tilting it up so that we were staring into each other's eyes.

He looked at me intently, like he was promising himself something. "If 'friends' means you, then no. You were always the most important thing when we were together. You were my priority. But when it comes to the team, they're my duty. I _have _to put them first. Just think of them as a chore. I'll be done with it eventually, but just not yet. I not ready to be done with them."

"A chore?" I smirked. "I wonder what you're team would say if they heard this..."

He raised an eyebrow. "You _wouldn't_."

"I would." I laughed, but it came out a little bit forced. "But I won't."

Garth looked at me gratefully. "Thanks. You been working out?"

I burst out laughing, still nervous around him. "Me, workout? You know that'll never happen."

Speculating, I watched as his eyes ran up and down my body. My pale cheeks went red. I wasn't used to being found attractive; usually Kori or Bee took the prize for that. Suddenly I had the biggest urge to put on my most hideous outfit and parade around him so that he would find me unattractive and stop staring.

"Stop that," I said crossly. I covered myself with my large tote (Kori said it looked more like a pillowcase with books inside). "I have to go now before any of the teachers see me."

"So what does this mean?"

"Huh?" In actuality I knew what he was talking about. I was just too stupidly shy to admit it.

"This talk. Does this make us friends again?"

"I guess..."

"Or more?"

I looked at him like he was crazy. "What?" I exclaimed. "You can't be serious. This is the first time we've talked in months."

"What if I am? I'm always wondering where you are, or who you're with. I get jealous everytime I see you with Gar. I still love you, Raven," Garth said in a strong, sure voice. "You're probably don't need me, but I need you. I've been messed up since we broke up."

I stared at him for a long minute, speechless. For once in my life, I couldn't think of anything to say back. No clever retort. No classic sarcasm. I had nothing.

He watched my dumbfounded expression, and soon the seriousness left his face.

"Okay," he said grinning. "That's all."

"I hate you. You're an idiot."

He smiled even wider, unruffled. "Come on, you know that this is what you want."

I walked up the rest of the steps and looked at him one last time, my dark hair falling out behind my ear, where it had been tucked in.

"Just promise me you'll think about it, okay? I meant what I said." He looked like he was going to start whistling a Barney tune any minute. I found it hard to believe that I was the source of this happiness.

"Fine. But don't expect an answer anytime soon." I slammed the door shut with my mind and floated up to the fourth floor, making sure that nobody was in sight.

When I got to my room, I dropped my things immediately and went into my room, grabbing one of the mirrors that lead to my mind and brought it out into the living room.

I had to meditate. Garth words were still making me dizzy as they ran through my head, repeating themselves over and over again, making me think harder and harder.

"Azarath...Metrion..._Zinthos_..."

I asked myself what I wanted. I didn't know. Different parts of my mind were running around madly like they had ADHD or something.

I tried to find the meaning in each and every word Garth had said. "_I've been messed up since we broke up_," he had said. So messed up that he became team captain and one of the most popluar guys on campus? The last time I had a real conversation with him was six months ago, when he confronted me about me dating Wally.

Did this mean that he had been jealous the whole time? That he had been wanting to get back together with me?

I remembered that day clearly. He was mad, clearly jealous, that I had move on so quickly. But then again, so was Gar. Gar took a less dramatic approach though. He just sat back and watched angrily when I dated Wally.

Wait...why was Gar suddenly included in my thoughts?

Everything was so confusing. My eyes were closed and I was as still as a statue. I had shut down physically, but my mind was practically raging. I could hear things being thrown around, glass being shattered, books being ripped apart. And then I heard something that sounded like the door being broken down.

Hmm. That was weird. I never heard that sound before in my mind.

That was enough meditating for the day. I opened my eyes slowly, expecting to find the room in perfect order, in contrast to my mind. But when I did see the room, it was far from my expectation. My eyes went wide.

Household objects were floating around. The kitchen faucet was running and the sink was about to overflow with water. Parmesan cheese was being sprinkled on the plant, as if someone was watering it. My homework was floating in midair ripping itself into shreds, and as I put my hand to my head, I felt pieces of glass sprinkled in my hair. I looked up to find the light bulb broken.

It was a good thing my mother gave me a 64 pack of spare light bulbs.

I put my hands to my temple. This never happened before. I didn't what to do or how I could stop everything. It was all too out of control. I squeezed my eyes shut frantically and curled my fists up into balls.

"Stop!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

For a second everything froze, and I opened my eyes slowly.

I sighed in relief. The water wasn't running anymore, the Parmesan cheese was lying on the floor, and one thing was positive: I was going to get an F on tonight's homework.

I was going to get up to start cleaning before Kori came, but I found out exactly ten seconds later I was already too late for that.

Because then I realized that if the running water in the sink and the shattering glass were all real and not just figments of my imagination, then the sound of the door slamming open must have been...

I turned around to look at the door, which was indeed broken down. To my horror, my roommate was standing in the middle of our doorway. Her green eyes looked like they were going to pop out of their sockets. Her mouth was hanging open when she dropped everything she was carrying in her arms.

"Great," I muttered under my breath. "Your timing sucks."

This was going to be a long day.

* * *

A//N: Thanks for all the reviews! I did end up being super happy when I saw everything you guys wrote to me. It took me a little bit longer to finish this chapter with the first week of school and everything going on. 

Please review. I'd love to hear from everybody.

Question, though:How do you think Kori should react? Fainting would seem like too much of a cliche...


	8. Garfield Logan II

**Garfield Logan**

Maybe I should've gone after Raven. Why did stupid Garth have to be so heroic and beat me to it? I plopped down on my seat glumly. I couldn't wait for the day to be over.

Kori walked into fourth period with an unusually pale face and sat in her seat, like she was watching a ghost dance in front of her.

"Today, class, we will be learning of French mythology," Ms. Dhenin said in her strong French accent. "It is important to know France's language, as well as its history."

This was a miracle. A day without fifty new words to memorize. At least something good was happening today.

"Some of the female gypsies of France were believed to have powers..."

I watched Kori's face go even whiter.

"...They were said to be able to tell the future and move things with their minds, concentrating their thoughts into crystal balls to meditate for tranquility..."

Kori put her hand to her mouth like she was going to throw up. She looked like a little kid who was being tortured with ghost stories.

"...They had special abilities, those gypsies. And their looks were quite unique and-"

"I have to go. Sorry," came a voice abruptly. I looked over to my side to see Kori back out from her chair and gather her things. Her eyes were slightly droopy, and her hands trembled as she gathered her bags and books in one arm. She ran out the door without another word.

To my surprise, a couple of minutes after the door shut, Richard stood up from his chair and followed after her. Kitten didn't seem to like this very much.

If Ms. Dhenin was mad, she didn't show it. Her mouth was practically hanging when the door shut after Richard.

I smirked. I had to see what was going to happen out there. I couldn't miss it for the world. I knew how much Richard and Kori hated each other. They wasted no time talking bad about each other when the other wasn't around. And when they were around each other, they did exactly the same...except with a little bit more physical contact and louder voices.

I started after them and ignored Ms. Dhenin's protests behind me. This was exciting. I could already hear their voices in the silent hallways. I tiptoed behind a wall and crouched down, peeking out slightly around the corner.

Kori was sitting against the wall with her head in her knees, confused and...almost scared. Richard walked to her and kneeled down next to her.

"Err. Are you...okay, Anders?" It seemed awkward for him to have a conversation with someone he supposedly hated.

She looked up, confused. "What are you doing here? Wait, let me guess," she said crossly. "You're taping this right now with your phone and you're going to post it up on Youtube. Or, you have a camera that you're hiding behind your back right now."

"First of all, my phone is in my backpack. Which is in the classroom. And second, both of my hands are on your shoulders right now, so I'm obviously not holding a camera. I just wanted to see what was wrong," Richard said coolly, regaining his composure. "Is that such a crime?"

She rolled her eyes, but blushed when she realized that Richard's hands _were _on her shoulders. "_You _wanted to check on _me_? That's new."

"To be honest, I don't think I've ever seen your face so pale."

"It's a long story. A _really _long story that took Raven the whole lunch period to tell."

Raven? What did she have to do with this? I was going to have to call her later...

"We _do _have a really long time before the bell rings," Richard pressed on.

"Yeah, but I really _don't _want to tell anybody. Especially you."

"Fine, but I'm really _willing _to help."

"Thanks, but I don't _need _your help," Kori retorted.

Richard was finally frustrated. "Why are you so stubborn?"

"Why are _you _so annoying?"

"This is why I hate you."

"Ditto."

I chuckled softly. Just when I thought there was actually going to be some peace between the two, they had to ruin the moment.

The bell rang, and I scrambled to get my things back in Ms. Dhenin's classroom. As I walked back, I heard them sigh in relief.

"Don't even try talking to anybody about this," Richard said, arrogantly and vainly.

"Whatever," Kori snapped.

At least that was one thing they agreed on.

-----------------------------------------

"So how'd it go?" I asked Raven.

"Kori's still a little bit shocked, but I think she'll be over it by tomorrow."

"And you said all that to her before fourth period? No wonder she looked sick."

"Yup."

"So you explained _everything_? All your powers and that thing with your dad?"

Raven was sitting on my bed, the closest we would both ever be on a bed doing anything. The thought made me frown even more. I couldn't help but marvel at the littlest things about her. And it was driving me crazy. For instance, her hair was practically begging for me to comb my fingers through it. And though she didn't

"I didn't tell her about Trigon if that's what you were thinking," she said, suddenly cross. "And stop calling him my dad. I hate him."

I put my hands up in the air, as if I was surrendering to her. "Okay, sorry. I didn't know you were still touchy about the subject."

Her eyes softened a smidge as she looked into mine. It took a while for the talking to start again. Her beauty had practically dumbfounded me. I was sure she wasn't thinking about me the same way, even though she looked at me like she was thinking hard about something.

"What? Do I have tofu in my teeth?" I asked. I saw a small grin forming on her face, but it only lasted for seconds before that concentrated face of hers appeared again.

She hesitated to speak. "You know that you're my best friend, right?"

"Yeah, and you're mine. Why?"

"I need your opinion on something."

I nodded slowly, my eyes narrowing. There was a catch to this. Nevertheless, I knew that I was going to end up one of two things: extremely happy, or just plain furious. "Depends on what it is..."

"Well...Garth talked to me today..."

Oh God. He asked her out. Again. I couldn't have that jerk taking out my best friend to places where I couldn't watch over her, where I couldn't protect her. I prayed silently to myself that I was horribly wrong.

She eyed me warily, wondering how I was going to react. "He wants to get back together, but..."

By this time I was ready to burst. Just the fact that Garth's _face _was swimming around in my mind made me furious. The worst part was that when I tried to block my thoughts with something else, I only imagined Raven's _he's-so-dreamy_ face whenever she looked at him. I was right.

"Just spit it out," I said surprisingly cold. I saw her wince at my harsh tone. I had said it impulsively, without thinking. Before me, I watched her soft eyes harden into stone. There was tension concentrated into her pursed lips.

"I just wanted to see what you thought about it. I haven't given him an answer yet. Now what's your problem?"

I stood up from the bed and placed my feet firmly on the ground. I could feel the veins in my legs about to burst as I stood strained and stiff. "I can't watch you do this again. I saw him hurt you, put you through all that pain. I don't think you'd be able to survive that again."

Hopping off the bed, she put her face close to mind. We were head to head, both of our faces furiously red. It was quite intimidating.

"You're a good actor, Gar. Pretending to care about me?" she laughed dryly. "Classic."

I was shocked this time. "I'm your best friend, remember? I have to care. And I don't want to see you like that again."

I realized that we were slowly inching toward the door. I put my hands on her shoulders to steady her in panic. I didn't want her to go. It was too soon.

"If you were my friend you would accept anybody in my life. What's wrong with Garth?" She asked, shrugging my hands off her shoulders.

"He's not...good enough."

Without another word, she turned her heel sharply and slammed the door shut. The room trembled and I was sure that the walls were going to collapse any minute.

Richard stumbled out of the room about thirty seconds later as I threw myself down on the couch.

"Was there an earthquake?" he asked, holding on to the walls as he walked slowly to sit on the other side of the sofa.

"No. I wish there was though, instead the stupid fight." I stared glumly at a blank spot on the wall.

"I thought I heard voices," he said. He raised his eyebrow at me. "I'm telling you, you better that girl you love her soon. Or else that Garth guy is gonna take her for himself. I've seen it a bunch of times."

"I don't like her that way...anymore." I turned away from him so that he wouldn't see my guilty face. _Very _guilty.

"Just because I don't do my homework, it doesn't mean I'm stupid. You _love _her."

He looked at me like he felt sorry for me, but at the same time like he was going to burst out laughing.

"So you're right. Congratulations. Just don't say anything to anyone."

"Fine."

I had to admit, I admired Richard. The guy had no commitments. He wasn't desperately trying to get the attention of some girl he loved for two years. I was sure his skin wasn't even close to being as green as mine. He wasn't some kind of animal freak.

It was too quiet in the room without Victor. I switched the TV on to the news.

Staring dead into the TV, I decided to switch the conversation. "So what's the deal with you and Kori? Why do you hate her so much? She's pretty cool."

"You mean Anders? How can somebody like that be cool?"

"I saw what happened out in the hall during French."

Now it was his turn to be pale-faced. His eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his sockets, and his knuckles were almost white curled up in a ball. "You what?"

He didn't yell or punch my arm. The fact that his voice was so calm and collected (of course, the complete opposite of his face) made the following silence even more eerie.

"You were being a little too nice for someone you hated..." I made it sound like I didn't notice how embarrassed he was and turned my head so he couldn't see my smirk.

"I wasn't..."

He was cut off when Victor busted in the room, with panic written all over his face.

"Get up, ya'll. We need help. The whole first floor is flooded and the draining system is clogged. They need more guys to help downstairs or else this whole building is gonna flood too."

Richard and looked at each other before Victor dragged us out of the room himself. When we reached the first floor, I realized something as I was handed some gloves, a wrench, and a pair of goggles.

Bad days always involved clogged toilets.

* * *

**A//N: Wow. I send my super apologies to everybody for taking so long writing this chapter. School's been so busy, with meetings after school and everything, not to mention that AP World History is a killer! **

**Please review. It did take me a while to type something, and I tried to incorporate some RobinxStarfire fluff in it too. Hope you enjoyed.**

**Reviews make my day less stressed. **

**Haha. I wish. But they do help.**


	9. Kori Anders III

**Kori Anders**

"Did you hear?"

"About what?"

I grabbed my bag of chocolate covered pretzels and plopped onto the couch. It was fun to watch Rachel cringe at the sight of them, with her green tea and a fork dug into a salad.

It was Friday, which meant it was time for my usual trip to the city. I was actually thinking of going to Steel City and spending the night at a hotel there. Jump City was beginning to become a familiar place for me, and I was getting bored of it. In fact, the only thing I knew I could never get bored of was the handsome, jet-black haired, mysteriously masked…

"The whole Galveston Wing flooded. Some guy on the fourth floor couldn't get his toilet to flush, and it messed up the entire draining system."

"The _whole_ building?" I snickered, the thought of that guy possibly being Richard. "Did they say who the guy was?"

Raven, sensing my thoughts, looked at me. I think she was trying to be serious, but her grin deceived her face. "I'm pretty sure it _wasn't_ Richard."

We both cracked up laughing. The week had gone by so _weird_. Just four days ago, I was freaking out about what Raven had told me about her powers. It took me about twelve hours (all of which I spent locked up in my room) to realize how silly I was being, shutting her out because I was scared that she was going to twist hand off at any random moment.

Richard had been such a jerk the last couple of days, messing around with the "bubbly stuff" in chemistry and causing an explosion. Thanks to him, my hair was blue for the rest of the day. I didn't know what came over him in the hallway on Monday, when he followed me out of French. But the truth was, that I didn't care about it.

At least that was what I was telling myself.

"How can you be so sure?" I asked, little crumbs still slipping out of the corner of my mouth.

"I don't know; it's kind of weird. Gar says he goes up to the roof at exactly five minutes till nine and stays up there for hours. There really is nothing to do up on that roof, except for if you have a telescope or a girlfriend."

"Mmm…" I mumbled absentmindedly.

My thoughts were wandering off to the subject of the masked hero who saved me weeks the weeks before. I couldn't understand how someone could be so kind, taking out their own time to look out for careless people like me when they were trapped in alleyways.

His godlikeness was so distracting from his deeds. Of course, I had always heard of those crazy girls who would be on the lookout for "Robin sightings", and I heard the way _Access Hollywood _talked about him, crazily making up rumors for the tabloids. I had read in magazines that he was striking, and almost too hot for his own good. But I never thought that it was true. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw him.

My train of thought crashed when the door slammed open.

"We're here!" came a familiar voice on the other side of the door.

Raven gave me a small look of apology as she got up from her chair to get the door. "Come in, guys."

I sat up on the couch and looked up, startled to find Gar and Victor with about fifteen boxes balanced in the arms.

"Gar? What are you doing here?"

"You heard about the flooding in Galveston, right?"

"Yeah. Everything okay?"

"They evacuated us from the building just now." Gar's face looked pretty happy for someone who just lost his dorm. I looked at Raven curiously.

"Is it okay if he and the roomies stay here? It might be awhile," she said, fidgeting.

She was nervous about something. This was a bad sign, because Raven Roth was the calmest, most collected person I knew. And if she was nervous, then I was going to be a wreck.

I shrugged. "Sure. Stay as long as you like." I faced Gar and Victor. "Its only you two, right?"

They gave each other looks. "Err…"

I was sure that "err" was just the humility of having to live with two girls. I looked at their boxes. Fifteen boxes for two boys almost seemed like too much, like there was a third person with them. I waved it off. Maybe their moms made them pack too many pairs of underwear.

But I was wrong, horribly and terribly wrong. Because exactly one minute and thirty seconds later in the awkward silence, a sweaty Richard walked in with yet another box in hand. He was wearing a white shirt. It was very…thin. I could see his chiseled abs underneath, and when I realized this, I quickly turned my eyes to his face.

"Hey, where do you guys want me to put this?" he asked, not noticing my mouth hanging all the way down to my feet.

And then that dreadful moment came. He looked around the room until his eyes flickered to mine. He almost dropped the box he was carrying, and his eyes churned with a mix of surprise and coldness.

"What it _that_ doing here?" we panicked in unison, pointing at each other.

I looked at Gar and Raven trying to hide behind each other, and waited for an explanation.

"He's kind of going to stay with us," Raven said.

They were roommates? Gar, Vic, and Richard were roommates and I didn't know?

I couldn't take it anymore. I was full of anger, something I wasn't used to. I put on my shoes, grabbed my purse and a jacket on the nearby coat rack, and stormed out the door.

---------------------------------

I never knew I had so much energy. I ran all the way to the train station and onto the train. I was still sprinting when I got off. Maybe running was my outlet. I _had_ been doing it all my life—-running away from home, from Caklan and my mother.

I wasn't exactly sure which direction I was running in, or even where I was going. So many things were going through my mind. I didn't know what came over me when I saw the wall blocking my way, but I jumped over it…and found solace.

It was a beautiful park. The fact that it was empty made it even better. I needed a place where I could think without seeing Raven and Gar making goo-goo eyes at each other, or hearing Victor yelling at his Xbox. A place where I couldn't see the very person I disliked the most.

There was something odd about the park. It was completely empty. I caught sight of a dark figure coming my way, carrying a flashlight. There was a rustling in the leaves. The figure was coming closer, walking faster until it began to break out into a run towards me.

I stood there dumbly. I wonder what the big emergency was…

After that everything seemed to happen in a flash. Something lunged at me from the bushes and tackled me hard into the ground.

"Mhhm?"

It was him, the Boy Wonder. His hand was over my mouth muffling everything that was coming out of it. He looked at me, panic written all over his face.

"Shh..." he hushed hastily. "What are you doing here?"

He let his arm down to his side and eyed me warily, his mask flexing to every curve of his eyes, and allowing me to talk.

"Is it against the law to take a walk? Besides, I needed some air…"

"A walk is normal. But a walk at midnight isn't," he said. "The park is closed. Do you know what security would do to you if they were to find you?"

"This is supposed to be a community park." I lifted my head up and looked at him with challenging eyes.

"You're too stubborn," he said warily. "Not to mention _different_."

I narrowed my eyes. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"Depends. In your case, it isn't so much of a bad thing."

It was a compliment. I was beaming inside.

The footsteps were coming closer. I could feel the both of us panicking. He grabbed my hand and led me quickly under a hole in the tree trunk. It took me a while to realize what we might have looked like to someone passing by.

It almost felt like the walls of the tree were pressing our bodies together. His arms were extended, pushing on the opposite wall and obviously trying to keep his distance from me. I could tell from the look on his face that he was trying to keep alert for anybody coming near, but our noses were just barely touching and our lips just centimeters away from each other. It was too distracting. I turned my head away and stood there with my legs stiff.

This was so awkward...

"You really have to stop ditching school," he whispered, obviously uncomfortable.

"Technically, school isn't in session right now, so this isn't exactly ditching."

"Hmm. Good point." He looked around to see if the coast was clear, and he soon pulled me from out of the trunk.

I brushed my hair to the side of my shoulder and pulled my jacket down. Being so close to Robin had made me dizzy. I tried not to wobble as much as my head was at the moment. He was looking at me peculiarly, as if he was expecting something to happen. I turned beet red.

"I have to go," I said randomly, trying to change the subject.

"Someone's in a hurry…"

"The last train to Steel City leaves in about thirty minutes." He raised an eyebrow. I gathered my jacket and purse, which were still lying on the side of the bush, and faced him. "Thanks, again. I think I'll be fine from here…"

I gave him a soft smile and then turned around, hoping that he wouldn't ask why I was running off to someplace farther away from Victoria Prep.

"Wait."

I jumped when I felt his hand on my shoulder in an instant. His eyes widened when he realized what he was doing, and he jerked his arm away from mine. It was nice while it lasted. I was almost pathetic around this boy.

"Why Steel City? You're a magnet for danger. I can't watch over you like I normally do and keep you out of trouble," he said with a small lop-sided grin. "Are you sure you can't stay a little bit longer? We can stay here for a couple more hours and play hide and seek with security."

I giggled like a silly schoolgirl. My smile wobbled like jelly. I had to get away before my heart exploded from flopping around so much…

"I'm not sure I would have the time…"

"If you really want to go to Steel City, then I'll take you there myself."

"Well, why do you want me to stay so bad?"

It was quiet after that. I suddenly wished I hadn't asked that. He probably thought I was some crazed fan who wanted him to desperately fall in love with me. And none of that was true. It was merely lust. I felt it whenever I was with Roy all the time.

"I'll race you to the next security guard."

He said it so quickly, like he was trying to get away from the subject. It made part of me sad that he didn't answer the question, but my other half was more sensible, and knew that it was better that he didn't saw anything to give me false hopes though.

I really wouldn't have minded an answer, though. My life was built on false hopes.

---------------------------------

I walked through the door with a silly grin on my face. I might as well have been floating on the clouds. I spun around in the kitchen and pranced around the living room.

"Wow. You _are_ weird…"

I yelped in surprise to find Richard lying on the couch. His eyes were barely open, and his hands were resting peacefully on his chest.

"Don't scare me like that!" I hissed, careful not to wake anybody up. Especially Raven.

"It's late. I can do whatever I want."

I ignored his remark. "I can't _wait_ until that stupid pipe gets fixed."

A small smile came over his face. "Waiting for something makes time longer, you know. It looks like I'll be here for a long time…"

I grumbled in frustration and turned my heel to my room. I could hear him chuckling softly to himself behind me.

"Shut up, Grayson."

**

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****A//N: Another Kori chapter! I hope none of you mind, but I'm holding off on some of the Raven/BB chapters. I want to develop Kori and Richard's characters a little bit more. Thanks for all the comments and reviews for the last chapter. I appreciated the time!**

**Please review. I love reading every single one of them. The more, the merrier!**

**-sTaRfIrExrObIn**


	10. Richard Grayson III

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" I scolded at myself as soon as Kori's door closed behind her.

I didn't know what came over me when we were at the park. There was something strange fluttering in my stomach when we were in the tree, as squished as we were, that made me want to…

Never mind.

-------------------------------

There was something about the timing of things that bugged me. Maybe it was _my_ timing.

I only realized this a week after that horrifying night in the park. Somehow I found it harder and harder to be the same mean old jerk I was to Kori. I had to force the foulest subjects out of my mouth just to get her ticked off. And then something new would happen. I actually felt _guilty_ afterwards.

It happened. Gar and Raven had finally exploded from all the fighting and left for school without us. Victor didn't seem to care, because he was too busy talking to Bee on his phone.

"Now look what you did—our friends don't even want to be around us anymore because _you_ can't keep your mouth shut!" she said angrily, her voice rising.

This time, I did keep my mouth shut and ignored her. I was tired of this. The angry tension between us was becoming too overwhelming. I couldn't stand how much she hated my guts. I really couldn't blame her, though…

"Look, people are beginning to stare." I slammed the door behind us angrily. "Just get over yourself, bratty little princess monster, or whatever it is you are."

There was hurt in her eyes, but they were soon clouded over by even more anger.

"I can't even tell you how angry you're making me right now," she seethed.

She was walking backwards now, her eyes burning into my face. She didn't seem to notice that she was backing closer and closer into the stairs. My insides were suddenly starting to ache.

"You know what's sadder? You don't even know the difference between what's right and what's wrong…"

The sound of wheels alerted me. The housekeeping maid was in sight, rolling her cart down the hall. It was a surprise that she could even see over the stack of toilet paper on the top shelf of the cart. The wheels seemed to be rolling a little bit too fast...

Oh God. This could not be happening.

"Anders…"

"Just tell Papa Bruce to come and pick you up since you're practically dying to get out of here!" she went on. This was the angriest I'd seen her yet.

I could see the stubby lady coming down faster than ever. Kori was literally two steps away from the edge of the stair step.

"Anders, don't take another step back," I said even sharper this time.

For a quarter of a second, the anger disappeared from her face and she looked at me confused. "What are you—"

Too many things happened in that quarter of a second. She never finished her words. To my horror, I watched as her fragile body clashed with the cart. Her arms flew from her sides, waving them around for something to grab.

There was something that made me scream her name in agony just before she toppled down the staircase. Our eyes met for a split second. Her eyes were almost neon green and wide and, for the first time, scared, seeming to scream for me to save her.

I reached out, but it was too late. The next thing I knew, I was on the first floor, and there was a huge circle of curious spectators around me. I was kneeling over her unconscious body.

-------------------------------

"So she'll be okay?"

I looked at Raven, who was calmly talking to the doctor. Gar, on the other hand, was a mess. He had been bawling his eyes out for almost a day. Victor was trying to get him to admit he was overly emotional.

"This has been one of the most interesting cases we've had," said the doctor. She looked at me curiously. "There isn't a scratch on her. She should've been in a coma or had a number of bones broken for someone who fell down four stories."

"Are you sure she isn't in a coma right _now_? I mean, she's been sleeping for two days now," said Raven.

"Don't worry yourself about that." The doctor clicked her pen and stuck it in her front pocket. "Apparently she just likes to sleep a lot."

She exited the room within seconds, with Raven, Gar, and Victor trailing behind her. I was left alone in the room with Kori.

I still couldn't even digest what had happened two days before. Maybe if it weren't for what I had said to her, she wouldn't have gotten so distracted. Or maybe I was really just the bad person she was trying to tell me I was all along…

Her eyes began to flutter open. I could do nothing but watch her stare back at me confused.

"Ow, my head hurts," she said at once, putting her hand to her forehead.

"You've been sleeping for the last forty-eight hours." Saying this made my eyes go wide instantly. "W-well…according to Raven," I was quick to add.

"Wait…why are _you_ here?"

I couldn't answer that.

She smirked. "Wow. The guilt has actually caught up to you this time."

"Hey, I wasn't the one who made you fall down. You did that yourself. I couldn't care less." For some reason that felt like a lie.

"Then why have you been sitting outside my door for two days?"

"Because when you fell…it was partly my fault," I admitted.

"_Partly_…"

"Can I finish?"

"Whatever. So it's your fault. Big deal. It always is; what's so different about this time?" she muttered under her breath.

"I want us to stop hating each other. I want you to stop making that face whenever you see me, like you are right now."

She relaxed her face from the narrow-eyed look she was giving me. "Go on," she said. I noticed that her voice softened just a little. That didn't mean it still wasn't hard.

"I want to make a truce."

I was surprised to hear the words coming out of my mouth. The look on her face was nothing compared to mine, though. Her mouth practically dropped nine feet down, and her eyes went wide, taking up almost half of her face.

"Quit drooling over yourself," I joked.

"Wait…so you want us to be _friends_?" she asked in disbelief.

"No. Not yet. I think you still hate me too much."

"I'm pretty sure you feel the same way about me too, since you've been an ass to me ever since we met."

I chuckled softly. This being "nice" thing made me feel better than when I was mean to her.

"So you want us to be neutral?"

I nodded my head. "Not friends, but not enemies."

"I think that'll be kind of nice." She seemed to think about it for a second. She flashed me a challenging look of approval. "You're on."

I reached my hand out and we shook hands. It felt weird in a way that made my skin tingle. We sort of sat there for a couple of awkward silent minutes until she looked at me, expecting me to say something.

"So what do 'neutrals' do?" she asked.

"Well…they…" Suddenly a light bulb seemed to flash brightly in my head. "They tell each other…_stuff_, I guess."

"Like what?" she scoffed. "Who we're crushing on?"

I raised my eyebrows expectantly. This seemed to mean enough for her. She stopped laughing.

"No _way_. What happened to you and being 'girly'?"

"What happened to you and our _truce_?" I gave her my best puppy dog look, which was also at the same time the least convincing face in history. "And I thought you said we were _neutrals_…"

I could see the guilt working it's way onto her face.

"Fine."

I wanted to throw my fist up in the air. This was going to be good.

"But you go first," she said, folding her arms across her blanket.

I suddenly stopped thinking. My mind gears came to a slowing halt. Who could I possibly talk about?

Babs.

Maybe this was a bad idea. It was embarrassing. I was going to say this as quickly as I could.

"She lives in Gotham and I've known her since the second grade and she's pretty and her name is Barbara Gordon," I said in (literally) three seconds. I breathed. I was pretty sure I was going to have a heart attack as soon as I finished saying that.

"I only got half of that. Say it again," she demanded.

"No repeats," I teased like a five-year old.

"Are you kidding me?"

"I said what you wanted the way I wanted to say it. Now it's your turn."

Her face was suddenly red. "No."

"Come on, I'm sure it's not that bad…"

"No," she said again, chuckling softly. "You're going to think I'm just a little schoolgirl with a mushy crush or something…"

"Just tell me. It'll be part of our truce: a secret between only the two of us," I promised a little too quickly.

"Well…everybody knows him. He's a hero. _The_ hero of Jump City, if you really want to be that exact," she said after a moment of hesitation.

It was me. She was talking about me. For some reason something started to churn in my stomach, making me queasy.

"Oh. _Him_?" I asked, referring to Robin. I didn't sound half as convincingly clueless as I aimed for. "Why him, though? I mean, haven't you ever heard of Superman? I hear he has a lot of, err...fans."

She laughed at herself lightly. "I…I really don't know. I think it's just the way he can make me feel like jelly when I'm around him; it's like I'm a different person. I can't think of anyone braver and daring, and so into _life_. There's just something that makes me look forward to seeing him, and somehow I'm always hoping I'll run into him."

There was a sudden pain in my chest, but I ignored it completely, losing myself in her words. "I've met him before." I slapped myself mentally seconds after the words came out of my mouth. Me and my pride…

Her eyes lit up even brighter. "Yeah, right," she said in disbelief. Her eyes looked like they were afraid to trust me at that moment. "Are you breaking our truce and playing a trick on me?" she added, a small smirk on her face.

"It was just the other day," I lied, "When I was lying on the roof and he stopped by. He mentioned your name a couple of times."

"Really?" She was looking at me straight in the eye now. I never quite realized how green her eyes were until now. "Do…do you mind if I ask what he said?" she fidgeted.

"Err…"

_Stupid, stupid, stupid! _I scolded myself. I didn't plan on her asking me that. _Here goes nothing…_

"He said…" My voice trailed off. I couldn't let her down now when I had gotten her hopes raised so high. After pausing for a moment of thought, I looked back into her eyes once more, confidently and surely. "You're the most stubborn person he knows, and so _different_, unlike anyone he's ever met…and its what makes you beautiful. One glance into your eyes can make his heart beat like crazy until he has to look away before it explodes. Just the chance to be standing beside you makes him feel like the luckiest man in the world, because for a single moment, you're his and nobody else's. He's selfish when it comes to you, and it bugs him because he's never…"

I stopped myself short. I didn't know where all of those words came from. It was impossible for me to make up something like that off the top of my head…

She looked at me, her eyes wide. For a moment she was speechless, and I thought I had scared her. "Robin said all those things, every word?" She looked down at her hands again.

"Yes."

My heart thumped louder and louder in my ears as her eyelashes slowly batted up to meet with my eyes. I couldn't take it anymore. I had to look away; the intensity was too strong to handle for someone as unstable as me.

But I couldn't, and that was what bothered me the most.

"Tell him-"

"-Richard, the nurse wants you out. Visiting hours are over."

It took me a while to take my eyes off her face and turn my head to the direction of Gar's longer than it took her to do the same to me.

Our hands were placed on top of each other, and seeing that made me panic even more. I had no idea how it got like that, but as soon as we saw Gar looking at us funnily, we both snatched our arms away from each other at the same time.

"O-okay," I said shakily. "I'll be out there in a second."

"I'm getting out of here sometime this week," she said after the door closed behind Gar.

"Nice."

"This doesn't make us the least bit closer to being friends, you know. I still hate you for everything you've done and said to me," she confirmed.

"I think I know that…"

"Being neutral is just like before except without all the screaming and yelling."

"Got it."

"Oh, and Grayson?"

I turned around. "Yeah?"

"How long is this truce going to last?"

"Just tell me when you want to go back to hating me. If that's what you want, I'm good." Oh, great. Another lie. My pants were going to be on fire if I kept this up.

I began walking towards the door and took one last look at her. She had a stubborn little smile on her face that seemed to make her glow. This time I _really_ couldn't tear my eyes off her face.

And then I realized something that made me want to pour a large bucket of ice-cold water on my head.

I wasn't sure how it happened. I was a temperamental person. I got irritated easily. Things that annoyed me were the first I took care of. And she was different. The complete _opposite_.

It was a horrible, terrible thing to do. But it was too late; what was done was done, and there was no reversing or turning back. I never knew I could feel like this for something I hated so much, for someone I spent so much time being angry at. But I did.

I was falling love with Kori Anders…

…And it had to stop soon.

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**A//N: Three words: **

**_Share. _**

**_Your. _**

**_Thoughts._**

**Squishing all that into one word equals _REVIEW_! Thanks. Much love to all those who did review the last time!**

**-sTaRfIrExrObIn**


	11. Kori Anders IV

**A//N: One word: ****E****N****J****O****Y****. Trust me, I know you will.**

* * *

It was weird.

I had thought about it for hours. I thought about it for the rest of my stay at the hospital, and on the drive back to Victoria Prep. When I got home, I hobbled straight to my room, lied down on my bed, and thought about it some more. And after all of that thinking, I still didn't get it.

I tried to think back to the day of the accident. I couldn't understand how a person could be so cold and harsh, and then turn into some kind of Uncle Sam. A truce? Was he kidding? Was it supposed to be funny? It had to be some kind of sick joke, because from Day One, Richard and I hated each other's guts. Almost to the point where whenever we'd see each other, some little switch turned on and our hatred was automatic.

A truce was the best solution.

Our relationship (if you wanted to call it that) was black. Our enmity was horrible, and whenever we saw each other, it only grew more and more. I did wonder what color "neutral" was, though. I was hoping that it would be at least a little lighter than black. Anything was better than black.

Richard didn't say anything to me when I got back from the hospital. When I came into the room, still walking around dizzily like I was drunk (the unfortunate side effects of the medicine), he only looked at me. There was no smile, but this time, his blue eyes were clear and not clouded with his troubles.

There was one thing that I thought about more than Richard's truce. It was hard not to daydream about it. Spacing out during dinner was not the best way to conceal it. But I couldn't take it anymore. My feelings of love were right about to burst out of my heart.

I went on my weekly trip to Jump City as soon as I was well to find the boy who had been haunting my dreams….

-----------------------

I really couldn't imagine life at Victoria Preparatory Boarding School without a train to take me _away_ from it. It was hard to stay away from the city, despite how dangerous it was. Being surrounded by rich, snobby people 24/7 was getting to be too much for me. Whiny voices about little stains on a pair of new ballet flats or complaints of running out of money were starting to echo in my ears, even when the people weren't there.

The train ride to Jump City seemed longer than usual. I walked past the park tonight and walked around it. For some reason I wanted to skip the noisy cars and blinking ads tonight. I turned south on my usual route and ran.

It was a stupid idea, because I didn't know where I was running to.

I ended up walking along the side of what was a cliff above a beach. It was empty. I finally found a peaceful place. Now I just had to remember how to get here and back…

"Boo."

The voice came out of nowhere. I shrieked loudly and turned around to find none other than Boy Wonder behind me. He had that goofy, lopsided smile that he got whenever he joked around. It was the same goofy, lopsided smile that made my heart beat faster.

"Robin!" I exclaimed, and I pushed him playfully. The beating stopped suddenly. Was I _flirting_ with him? This was not me.

"Don't do that. Again." I tried to sound more serious this time, but I don't think it went so well.

"Oh, come on. It's not like you fell off the cliff or something."

I sighed. It was the 50th one in the last two days. How pathetic.

"I know. I'm just really…tired, that's all." I didn't really like the sound of my voice when I said that. I could've sworn I sounded like one of those people on antidepressants.

He didn't seem to notice, though. "Here, follow me. I know a really nice spot."

He offered his hand out, and for a second I stared at it dumbly. And then it dawned on me that he wanted to take me somewhere. I placed my hand in his without another thought. He led me to what had to be the highest cliff on the beach. We were running uphill side by side. I started to pant heavily. How embarrassing. I slapped a hand to my mouth to help muffle my breathing.

It wasn't working.

He ended up giving me a piggyback ride. We laughed the whole time until our stomachs were sore. When we did get there, I was completely breathless. I don't think I had ever breathed in air so…fresh. We stopped suddenly in our tracks, and he set me down. Our eyes met. His smile widened, but I just looked down and blushed.

"Sit down," he said, grinning. I obeyed instantly.

I hated the influence he had over me.

I hugged my knees insecurely and dug my face in my arms. "So how many girls have you brought to this spot? It has to be at least—"

"You're the first."

I looked at him, still stupidly amazed with the freshness of the air. I think I was just trying to find a dumb excuse to prevent letting myself melt right in front of him.

"Liar."

"I'm serious." He was staring out into the fog until he faced me suddenly, catching me off-guard.

It was too quiet after that. All I could hear was the rhythm of our breathing and the waves roaring below us. Something got into me, though. Out of nowhere, I lay myself down in the sand, waving my arms and legs widely.

"Sand angels!" I giggled playfully. I saw the seriousness leave his face as he chuckled. He lay next to me as soon as our laughter had died down.

"I think that was the most random thing I've done all day."

"You mean the most random thing _ever_."

"And you don't think I'm weird?" I asked as I smiled at him.

"No. Just random. You're more different than anybody I've ever known."

I felt my face go red, but then I realized something. Those were the exact same words that Robin supposedly told Richard. Maybe he wasn't making it up after all. I felt bad for not trusting Richard more and had the pressing urge to confirm it with Robin.

But I wasn't that desperate. Heck, I was the complete opposite of that. Stubbornness was my best quality, and I intended to keep it that way. We were lying on top of the highest cliff on the beach. I wasn't about to ruin the moment.

I looked over at him quickly to find his eyes lost in the starry night. I did the same, but found that my heart started to beat even faster.

"You're everywhere, aren't you?" I asked softly.

"What do you mean?" He was looking at me now. I couldn't help lowering my eyelashes embarrassedly.

"Saving people, I mean. Take me for example," I said. "It's been twice now that you've gotten me out of trouble."

He chuckled softly and propped himself up on his elbow. "I just know who I have to keep that extra eye on. That's all."

"And just who are those people?"

He looked hesitant. "I can't tell you that. It's not right. On my part, I mean."

My eyes fell from his face once more. I sat up. "Fine." I folded my arms crossly and looked the opposite direction. He laughed.

"What's so funny?" I asked, irritated.

"You."

"Well, I'm glad you find me amusing." I faced him. "I should be getting home now."

I soon regretted saying that, because a few seconds after, he sighed, almost like he was sad that I was leaving. I found this hard to believe, so I pushed the thought aside.

I stood up unsteadily, still wanting to barf at how high up we were from the waves crashing against the rocky shore. I turned my heel. I hope it wasn't too dramatic.

All of a sudden, I tripped over a little bump in the sand. I was sure looked like a fool, with my arms waving around wildly and me screaming like a maniac. Robin tackled me in a flash before my head went past the edge of the cliff. The weird thing was though, that I was on top of him this time. _Directly_ on top of him.

"Oh, God. I'm sorry, here, let me—"

I was struggling to get up, only to find myself literally trapped in his arms. His hands, firm but gentle, were at the sides of my arms.

"What are you doing?" I asked again, pretending to be peeved. That was all, of course, part of my horrible acting.

I tried to wriggle out of his grasp again, but I was weaker this time. He rolled us over, so that now he was on top and I was at the bottom. He was careful not to crush me, like I was some fragile glass sculpture or something.

At first I thought he was kidding, just having some childish fun wrestling me to the ground. But soon I noticed the seriousness in his face as he stared back down at me. He was breathing hard now, and I was breathing harder. It was hard not to when he was literally an inch away from my lips.

He dropped his head even lower, but paused suddenly. I thought I was going to die in agony. His hot breath was dancing on my lips, and my heart was racing uncontrollably. His lowered eyes ran down my face, from my eyes to my nose, and then stopped at my lips warily, asking for my approval. I glanced into his eyes for a split second, and he seemed to take this into account as permission.

We were sinking in the sand now. He dove down, closing the remainder of the space between us, and kissed me.

-------------------------------


	12. Garfield Logan III

**Garfield Logan**

There was a couple standing outside the hallway near Raven's room. The fact that it was one in the morning made me even more irritated to see them holding hands, the boy gushing to the giggling girl. He pulled her in for light kiss and I stuck my tongue out in disgust.

As I walked closer, I recognized that the boy was Garth. The girl's back was turned toward my direction. I didn't care who she was, but as I neared the dorm I used this chance to shove Garth aside. The ass was annoying me more than ever right now. I elbowed his side forcefully, pretending to have lost my balance. I "recovered" quickly, but it was fun to watch him let go of the girl's hand and grip his side, groaning loudly in pain. I still couldn't see the girl's face until she put her hood down and turned to Garth, confirming my worst fear imaginable.

It was my purple-haired, violet-eyed Raven.

Suddenly _I_ was the one in pain. Raven and Garth…they couldn't be _together_. Calling them a "couple" would have sent me to the hospital. I had unknowingly watched them kiss and make mushy goo-goo eyes with each other. I didn't even have enough strength to stick my tongue out this time.

It surprised me, the way she rushed to his aid quickly. I'd never seen her move so fast. "Oh my God! Garth, are you okay?" I could feel the angry vibe emitting from her; she was getting ready to sock my face. She turned around. Her face emptied out the anger but filled quickly with guilt. "Gar?"

"Yeah." My voice surprised me. It was cold and hard, too husky…and angry. My jealousy was practically seething through my teeth as I forced a stiff smile. It seemed to scare both her and Garth.

She suddenly looked ashamed of herself. She wiped her lips with her jacket sleeve and brushed her hands against her jeans. As it were ever going to clean her now. "G-Garth, I'm sorry…I think I—"

"Don't let me interrupt," I cut in rudely. I looked at Garth. "I think there's an empty room down the hall."

I had to get away before I hurt Garth. Before I literally turned into some kind of wild beast…

I watched Raven's mouth drop and her eyes fill with hurt. Garth looked equally surprised, but had a sickening excitement in his face. I couldn't care less at the moment. I just had to get out.

I grabbed the door, nearly breaking off the brass doorknob, and flung myself inside.

The room felt weird after the door closed behind me. It was too much of everything, really, if that made any sense. It was too quiet. It was too cold, and it was too quiet for the air conditioning to be on. And then I realized what bothered me the most. It was too _lonely_.

I plopped myself down on the couch solemnly. Ten minutes passed by. And I could've sworn I moved around the couch 90 in those ten minutes. I was bored. And not to mention pathetic. Was I really nothing without Raven? Or any of my friends for that matter?

I snatched the remote from the table and turned on the TV for the news.

"…_And in other news_…"

I grunted. Where was everybody else? I knew where Raven was, unfortunately. Victor was at his grandma's house; I dropped him off at the train station earlier at four. I never knew where Kori was, so it didn't matter anyways. So that meant the only one I could really talk to was Richard. And he was up on the roof.

"…_Reports have been filing in on sightings of the Robin, the Boy Wonder. From security cameras to the paparazzi, the famed superhero has been spotted in almost every corner of Jump City for what has been almost two months. However, Robin has disappeared from his usual hero scene these last three weeks. He was reportedly last scene in the Jump City Gardens dodging the security. What was odd was that he wasn't alone. The Boy Wonder was reportedly spotted with a mysterious girl who remains unidentified. The two seemed close, but for now Robin's love life is still a mystery. And just who is this new girl? We'll have the story to you when you tune in tomorrow for late night Jump City news_…"

I clicked the off button on the television and looked at the clock. It had been exactly thirty-two minutes and fifteen seconds, and Raven still wasn't back. My heart sank. Maybe I shouldn't have said what I said to her. And Garth. She could be in that room, the one that I told them about, with that fake pig Garth…

Just as I shuddered, the door slammed open. I jumped up in surprise and looked to find Raven, walking in through the door. Her hair was still in the same messy bun it was in thirty-two minutes and fifteen seconds ago. Her clothes were still on, and they hadn't moved an inch.

I gave a loud sigh of relief. But that was before I noticed that her normally pale cheeks were red, and that her lips were bruised.

She was walking to her room, but then stopped just before she came to the corner. Her back was hunched, and she was looking down, hugging herself with her arms around her shoulders. At that moment, I wished they could've been my arms.

"You were right," she said solemnly, still not looking at me.

"About what?"

"About Garth."

I stood up from the couch now and walked closer to her. My eyebrows furrowed together. "What did he do?" I growled quietly.

She raised her head up and made eye contact with me. "I don't want to talk right now."

She continued to walk down the hall until she disappeared behind her door. I slammed my fist down on the counter and roared like a bear. It tended to happen a lot these days. I stopped myself shortly after before anybody thought there was a grizzly in our dorm.

Was there any way out?

Suddenly a light bulb in my head lit up brightly.

The roof. Richard was probably up there right now. If the roof made him relax, it might possibly work on me too. _Possibly_. But it was worth a try. The air in the room was giving me a headache; Raven's words were still hanging in the air.

I left the dorm. The door to the roof was right next to ours. There was something odd; I could feel it. I put my hand on the doorknob and twisted it. It was locked.

I could feel my eyebrows rise up to my forehead as I walked back into the dorm and out to the balcony. I quickly took off the disguising rings and changed into a monkey, climbing up quickly until I reached the top of the roof.

There was nobody up here. No Richard. If he was here, then where was he? I distinctly remembered him telling me that he was going to be up here. _"I'll be on the roof. Don't wait up for me."_ He didn't have to lie to my face about anything; it wasn't like I was his mom.

I pushed the thought aside for a moment and lay down. This was actually kind of…peaceful. But it didn't last too long.

A dark, figure suddenly landed on the building. I propped myself to my elbows and spotted the shadow quickly. At first I thought it was a large bird, but that was until I saw it standing on two feet.

I ducked quickly beside the air-conditioning vent and waited. It was a guy. You could tell from all the grunting, and heavy sighs. They almost sounded like mine.

The figure finally stepped out from the dark corner where it had been standing, no more a shadow.

Shit.

Robin, the Boy Wonder. That was the guy's name, and he was standing right above our dorm five feet away from me. It was hard not to confuse him with a guy in a Halloween costume, because his mask was exactly where it was in all of his pictures, and his red and green suit looked exactly as I imagined it would be.

I felt like one of his little girl fans. I wanted so badly to run up to him and whip out my fat camera and have him sign the Polaroid picture. He was a _superhero_. You rarely ever got to meet a superhero unless they were saving you. The best part was, that Raven would go crazy if I showed her a picture of Robin and me. But I stayed still. For some reason, there was something that was holding me back. Like Time was telling me that there was more to see.

He was sweating, his cheeks red. But what on Earth was he doing on top of a roof at Victoria Preparatory Boarding School?

I spaced out for a second. And when I blinked my eyes, something was happening. Robin was taking off his mask. It was happening slowly. I couldn't close my eyes. It was a wrong thing to want to know his secret identity, something he fought to keep to himself in half of his battles.

I couldn't keep my eyes open for too long, though. I blinked again, this time to find the little slip of leather in his hands. Standing right in front of me was my very own roommate.

Robin, the Boy Wonder, the very superhero I had envied for his fame and strength, was Richard Grayson.

"Shit." This time I said it out loud.

And this time he heard. Richard turned around slowly, as if he didn't want to face the horror of the possibility. I got up from where I was kneeling behind the air conditioning.

"Oh, God." Those were the only words he could utter out of his mouth.

This was the first time I had ever seen his face so horrified. He was actually _scared_. I never thought a day would go by when I see him _this_ scared.

"_You're_ Robin? _You're_ the one that's been saving lives, getting all of the girls, and the one I've been looking up to?" I asked. My surprise sounded a bit mean.

He ignored what I had just said for a moment. "Gar, you can't tell anybody about this. I'll have nothing left."

For the first time since I'd met him, Richard Grayson was being humble. I never thought it was possible, with his monthly shipments of the latest, updated phones, crowd of girls, and his rudeness to Kori. But now he might as well have been on his knees.

"I won't tell, I swear. I'm not that kind of person," I said strongly, binding the words to my heart. "So this is why you've been locking yourself up here."

"Yeah," he said, looking at the lights of Jump City that shone behind me. He turned around though, and looked at me with ferocious eyes. "But I have a few ground rules I want to give you."

"What?"

"Number one: You better cover for me when people get suspicious, got it?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure. We already went though this two seconds ago," I said.

"And now the answer to your question. Yes, I save lives. I get the girls, but I don't keep them, since none of them are the girl that I actually want." He looked sad about this for a moment, but then overcame it with a smirk. "You look up to me? I never would've thought..."

"Just skip to your next rule," I said half embarassed and half cross.

"Third, don't let this leak out to anybody," he continued, turning serious once more.

I talked without thinking, unaware that I was soon going to regret it. "Not even our friends? I'm sure Kori would be nicer to you if she knew—"

"—Don't tell Kori _anything_ about this. Anybody but her. If she ever knew, everything would be ruined. This is the most important rule of all." His stern voice made me shiver. This was the rule he was the most serious about.

"Why would you care if Kori…" My voice trailed off in thought. And the idea, as crazy as it seemed, came to me. I looked at him as his cheeks went red, and he became suddenly fascinated with his mask.

"You've been meeting Kori, haven't you?" I accused.

"Well, not—"

"I know how she's been sneaking out at night to get to Jump. She's quick and sneaky, but not good at lying to people who know her too well." I looked at him carefully, ready to analyze his face for what was coming next. "Are you…do you _like_ her?"

He fidgeted even more with his mask, and then finally gave up, sighing. "Yes."

"For how long?" I pressed on.

"Long enough to give me the guts for what I did tonight." Poor guy. For some reason, everything that had to do with Kori was getting him down.

"Wait…so when you're Richard Grayson, you act like a asshole just to cover up for the fact that when you're Robin, you _like_ like her." I felt like we were seventh-grade girls at a sleepover talking about cheesy boys.

"You've got it all wrong," Richard said absentmindedly.

I scoffed. "How is that wrong? That's a perfect analysis of what—"

"I…I think I'm in _love_ with her." Richard said, his face more confused than ever.

Scratch that. This was _way_ better than cheesy seventh-grade gossip.

**

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A//N****: Deng. SIX Microsoft Word pages of ****LOVE****. I'm really sorry that I haven't updated for almost a MONTH. I hope this chapter satisfied your needs for all the pairings; it took me forever. School's been freaking busy. Sophomore year kills, although it's a lot more fun than freshman year. Anyways, review, cause yah know how happy that makes me.**

**_REVIEWS_** **equals** **_LOVE, BABY._**

**-sTaRfIrExrObIn**


	13. Richard Grayson IV

**Richard Grayson**

Everything was chaos after that night.

Even a month later, I still couldn't believe that I had been so careless. Gar knew my deepest, darkest secret. My whole life was in the hands of my green-haired roommate whose secret loves were a pale Goth girl and tofu cubes. I was doomed.

I was vulnerable because of my little secret slip. If anyone were to find out about my secret, I would be weak. To the city. To Bruce. But I was even weaker to someone else. Possibly my weakest.

I had been seeing Kori. Too much for my own good. We had been meeting each other every night, a different place every day. And truthfully, it was not healthy for me. Every time we touched, my skin tingled, and I could feel a little bit more of my strength disappear into thin air. It showed.

The first time our lips met, they touched for barely a fraction of a second. It became two seconds the second time. And now, after four weeks, every time I saw her I tried my best not to tackle press her up against a wall and suck on her addicting, pink lips. This was hardest whenever our hands would brush lightly against each other in hallways. It was pathetic how most of the time, I did this on purpose, just to see that annoyed scowl on her face when she'd look up and see me trying to match the same expression.

Things were so much easier at our usual meeting time. It was ironic, how I could lose control around her while my identity was kept underneath a stupid little mask.

--------------------------------------

She was about to come in any minute now. I could hear her footsteps coming from straight down the hall as soon as the elevator doors opened.

Fifteen minutes earlier, I had been kissing her hungrily, with me practically on top of her on a grassy hill. Now I had only had ten minutes left. And I was wasting them thinking about her. Usually I had an hour to prepare for my usual scenario: sleeping Richard with the television left on and popcorn all over the messy couch.

But right now the only that I was concerned with was getting into my pajamas before she opened the door. Frantically, I got to work, messing up the couch with a raggedy old blanket spread. The messy popcorn prop wasn't going to happen tonight. There was no time left.

Her footsteps were barely five feet away from the door.

I ran a hand through my hair frantically and ruffled it so it looked like I had bed head. I looked in the mirror. This might actually work…until I noticed that I still had my mask on. I ripped it off quickly, trying not to wail like a baby as soon as it stung.

"Sleeping…I have to be sleeping!" I said out loud to myself. This girl was making me go crazy.

It was too late. The doorknob was turning, so I hid behind the door. Classic.

As soon as she got in and closed the door behind her, I jumped out at her. "Boo!"

"Oh my God!" Kori shrieked. She was sweating. Her collarbone was nice and shiny, below that was tan skin leading down to her…

I stopped myself before my eyes roamed any further.

"What the was _that_?" she exclaimed.

"I, uh…couldn't sleep. It's an insomnia thing." I eyed her carefully again. "So what's _your_ excuse?"

"I'm went out for a while," Kori said, taking off her trench coat and unwrapping her scarf around her neck.

"Are you sure you should be walking on that leg, Anders? It's only been—"

"—A month and a half?" She laughed and raised her eyebrow. "It was just a little careless trip down the stairs. I don't get why you care so much…"

"We're neutrals, remember?" I reminded her.

"And yet you still don't call me by first name."

"I don't call anyone by their first name," I protested stubbornly on purpose. Her anger amused me.

"Bullshit, Richard."

"Now that's no way to speak to the person who's been keeping your secret about your little rendezvous to Jump…"

She froze and stopped what she was doing. "Now how you know about that?"

"I'm not stupid. Where else does somebody who can hop a wall in PE go this late at night?" I asked.

She was pulling off her boots now. "Yeah, whatever. Tell anybody and you'll be sleeping with your eyes open," she said crossly.

"Aww, come on, Kori, I was just playing around…"

She groaned.

"What? I said I was just—"

"No, it's not you. I can't get in the room. Raven can't stand when I walk in at three in the morning. She tends to…break a lot of the glass when I do that." Her brow furrowed. "Unconsciously, of course," she added quickly.

I told her I had some small shirts that had shrunken in the dryer last week. At first she protested. And then after a grunted "shut up" from Raven, she finally gave in. I handed them to her.

"Thanks," she murmured softly. She took them and ducked behind the kitchen counter. "Don't look," she said all of a sudden.

"What?"

"I'm changing here."

Was she trying to make my chest explode? My heart was beating faster than it was a few hours ago, when I was sitting on a hill practically on top of her. I was sitting on the couch now, gripping the sofa chair and nearly ripping the fabric off. I looked down. My knuckles were completely white.

I could hear the soft sound of her rummaging with her clothes behind the counter. "Can't you go in the bathroom?" It sounded more of like I was disgusted with her. When I was really disgusted with myself for being such a perv…

"Too late, my shorts are already off. And besides, it sounds like someone's in there…"

I grimaced. "Seriously, though. Can't you go somewhere else?" I was even meaner than the last time, but it was for my own good. I was ready to confess just about everything right then and there.

"I'm done already, alright? X'hal," she sighed angrily.

I turned my head, my neck stiff from looking at a blank spot on the wall. "Kori, wait."

I followed her as she stormed to the bedroom.

"Don't worry, I get it now." Her hand was on the doorknob now. "You think I'm one of those home schooled freaks who hasn't been exposed to the outside world. I know I'm not the normal, fairy-tale princess," she said warily.

"Maybe I don't like normal." I caught myself before I let anything else slip. It came out uncontrollably. I was totally helpless around this girl.

It did seem to wake her up, though.

Her eyes narrowed as she tried to understand what I meant. I could see her doing the math in her eyes, trying to eliminate the small piece of truth that I had stupidly let slip out of my mouth. Her eyes went big, and then soften.

"I don't…Good night, Richard." She breathed in to say more, but then pursed her lips together in silence and slipped in the little crack through the open door.

I sighed just as the bathroom door opened. Gar came out with a menacing smirk on his face.

"I think you need to tone it down a notch," he said, staring at me like he was the expert.

"Tone it down on what?"

"The flirting."

I could not believe I was taking the time to listen to this. "What are you talking about?"

"I just did you a favor, hogging the bathroom like that. Now you just told her that—"

I looked at him crossly and irritated. "I will get you back, just watch…"

And then I ran to the couch and plopped down on it tiredly, fighting my eyelids as they pushed down strongly.

So much for revenge.

It was Sunday the next day.

I was walking down the hall when I saw Kori's red hair in the midst of the crowded hallway. I felt bad about last night, so I pushed my way through the crowd, eager to catch up with her.

There was something odd about her. It wasn't the way how she didn't respond to her name, or how she was walking like one of those tramps on 23rd street by the Kings Bar. All of which she _was_ doing. Or how her hair seemed faded and not as red as I thought I saw it last night.

"Kori!" I ran up to her. She stopped suddenly, swinging her hips to one side. "Couldn't you hear me calling your name for ten minutes? I don't know why the halls are so crowded today, but—"

"Richard. Don't tell me you've gotten so caught up in this boarding school shit that you've forgotten _me_."

My mind went blank, as she turned around. My jaw dropped to the ground, and for once in my life, I was utterly speechless.

It _was_ a redhead. One whose beautiful smile blinded me for reasons that weren't good, and whose words were nonsense to my ears. She had followed me here. It _had_ to be that.

"Hello, Richard. It's so nice to see you again."

"Babs…" My throat went dry. "What are you doing here?"

**

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****A//N:**** You know what to do. Please and thank you!**

_**REVIEWS **__**equals **__**LOVE, BABY.**_


	14. Barbara Babs Gordan

**Barbara Gordon Babs**

"Wait, so why are you here again?"

I ignored him. "Where do you want me to put my bags, Richard? It's not like I have my own dorm yet. I just got here, in case you haven't noticed," I pointed out sassily.

"You've got to be shitting me," he said under his breath. I pretended not to notice again.

The sound of a door opening crashed my train of thought. A redhead walked in, carrying a stack of books so tall that they covered her face.

"Okay, so I have all the books for the project, and all we have to do is find a page on the net, so…"

Her voice trailed off as soon as she noticed me standing an inch away from Richard. There was a small smile on her face, and she shifted her eyes from me to Richard with an expectant look.

I didn't like her. She was annoying me when I had only known her for less than a couple of minutes. Richard, who was staring dumbly at her, got out of his trance when I punched his arm.

"Err…Babs, this is Kori. Kori, Babs."

"Hi." Her smile seemed to falter as she extended her hand to me.

"Hey," I said back in a tone too good to be true. I put my hand on top of Richard's and smiled genuinely. "So how much _does_ this boy talk about me?"

Richard hastily pulled his hand away and the redhead looked at me blankly.

"Actually, he's never mentioned you at all," she said, giving Richard a skeptical stare.

"That's because, there is no need to."

My head shot sideways towards Richard's direction. "What are you talking about?"

"I don't want you here, Babs," he said sternly. "I'm here to start fresh."

"Oh, Richard, stop being such a jerk," Kori said. She turned to me, flashing one of those annoying smiles. It was too pretty. And it got on my nerves. "You can stay here with us for tonight, since you don't have anywhere else to go."

I knew Richard and I were thinking the same thing at the end of that sentence. This girl was too nice.

--

"Hey, Kori?"

She turned back swiftly, maybe too eagerly, to find his nose nearly inches away from hers. I watched as she tried not to trip over herself. The sight was making me sick.

"Yes?"

I expected him to step away from her as quickly as he could. He was Richard. The boy was afraid of emotion. He was going to move away from her any second now. I waited patiently. But he just stood there, closer to Kori than ever before, while I felt ready to throw up. His blue eyes burned through hers with so much intensity that even I couldn't blink.

"Good night," he said simply, but his warm breath blew into her face, stunning her.

She turned around. I could feel his eyes following her as she walked back to her room, and before she closed the door, she stuck my head out through a little crack.

"Night." Kori tried to say it as dully as she could, without having the hints of excitement or giddiness burst out. I saw past it. Her little half-smile ruined it.

She finally closed her door, and I watched him walk away to the couch with a lovesick grin. I turned away and crawled into my bed.

How could this happen? I felt like crying. He never smiled at me with that crooked grin, or spoke to me in that firm, gentle voice. He was falling for her. I could see it.

Suddenly I didn't feel so sick anymore. The tears behind my eyes were gone in seconds and were replaced with something else. I was seeing red.

She was a threat to me now. I wasn't going to have some redhead princess take Richard away from me. I would do whatever it took. If I had to ruin her friends, I would ruin her friends. Her family. Her country. _Her_, Kori Anders. I was capable of anything.

In time, Princess Kori Anders of Tameran would be reduced to nothing.

It was a job I was looking forward to…

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**A/N: Well, I guess this means I'm back. I apologize for not updating this story as soon as I wanted. I've been off the computer and dealing with my real life. I can say, however, that I am aiming to finish this story by the end of this year. I really do hope that you continue reading the new chapters. Feedback encourages faster updates. Thanks for understanding.**


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